


New New Beginnings

by IAmTheBadWolf1990



Series: Promises [7]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Canon Rewrite, Established Relationship, F/M, Season/Series 05
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2018-06-06
Packaged: 2018-12-30 17:53:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 67,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12114072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmTheBadWolf1990/pseuds/IAmTheBadWolf1990
Summary: Now that the Doctor has regenerated into a new man, he and Rose must work through the changes that it brings to their lives. Oh, and there is also the small matter of the universe's impending destruction to deal with as well.





	1. The Eleventh Hour Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is part of my _Promises_ series that started with a series three rewrite and just kept going. I recommend that you read the previous stories in the series first but I reckon you could get away with skipping them if you really wanted to.

‘Rose?’ cried the Doctor from his position of hanging out of the TARDIS doorway. ‘A little help?’ His fingers dug into the wooden floor as he tried to pull himself back up into the time ship and away from the dangerously close London buildings. Although this body was little younger than his last, it didn’t seem to be quite as strong. Though that could have had something to do with the fact that he’d only had it for about 90 seconds.

With tremendous effort, the Doctor pulled himself back into the TARDIS and closed the doors behind him. Only then did he realise why Rose hadn’t helped. She was lying unconscious on the floor; surrounded by debris. Blood was trickling down her face from a nasty looking cut on her forehead. He immediately got up to go help her but then the TARDIS began to shake even more violently than it already had been. And that was saying something. The Doctor grabbed hold of what was left of the coral strut to steady himself just as the room started to tilt. ‘Rose, wake up!’ he shouted but it was in vain.

The room was on a dangerously sharp angle now and the inner doors fell open, revealing the TARDIS corridors beyond. Rose began to slide toward the open door and the Doctor let go of his safe hold and leapt towards her. He held her close to him as they fell towards what he knew would be the library.

But instead of feeling the pain of the hard bookshelves, he felt the cool splash of the swimming pool. The TARDIS must have moved it for them.

Coughing, he lifted Rose out of the pool and made sure she was still breathing. She was.

‘Thanks girl,’ he directed at his beloved time machine.

He quickly checked Rose over for any other injuries. Apart from the head wound that was already starting to heal, she seemed okay. The Doctor stroked her cheeks with his thumbs, taking a moment to appreciate the way her skin felt underneath his new fingertips. It was different and yet the same. His hands still felt like they were made to hold her. As if to test his theory, he reached down and intertwined their fingers, smiling with relief when he realised that they still fit together perfectly.

Suddenly, the whole room jolted, causing the Doctor to let go of Rose and fall backwards… right back into the swimming pool. ‘That would have been that impending crash landing, then,’ he muttered as he hauled himself out of the water for the second time in as many minutes.

Another quick check on Rose, and the Doctor decided that he had better go and asses the damage (both to the TARDIS and to whatever she had landed on). He opened the doors and went to walk out of the library but almost fell straight back in again. The library may have seemed to be the right way up from the inside, but outside, everything was on its side. The corridor was vertical and all the doors to the other rooms that were not locked had swung open.

‘The artificial gravity must be on the blink,’ said the Doctor to himself. ‘Everywhere except for the library.’ He looked up to the top end of the corridor where there was a small yellow light that signalled that the console room was still burning. ‘Blimey, how do I get up there?’

It took a couple of moments to remember that he had _plenty_ of equipment that could help him get up there (he blamed the small lapse in memory on the regeneration that was still so recent). The problem was, it was all in either the workshop, or the garden shed. The Doctor scanned the nearby open doors and sent another grateful prayer to his TARDIS when he saw that the workshop was just next-door.

One minute and an awful lot of undignified climbing and crawling later, the Doctor landed back in the library with a grappling hook in one hand and a coil of rope in the other. He put the items down on the floor for a moment and walked back over towards Rose. ‘I won’t be long, I promise,’ he whispered to her before leaning down and kissing her forehead where her earlier scar was now nothing more than a faded pink line.

He gave her hand one last squeeze and then retrieved the hook and rope from where he had left it. He attached the rope and then threw the hook upwards towards the exterior doors that the TARDIS had helpfully opened for him. It took a couple of tries but he managed to get it securely hooked onto the outer edge of the ship. 

‘Right, here we go,’ he said and he hauled himself out of the crashed time ship.

And immediately came face to face with a little Scottish girl named Amelia Pond.

\----

When Rose woke, the first thing she noticed was that her clothes and hair were damp. That was a bit odd.

The second thing she noticed was that she was in the swimming pool room. Hold on, no, she wasn’t. She was in the library. The swimming pool just happened to be in the library too. Well, that explained the damp clothes at least.

The third thing she noticed was that she was alone.

That was when she remembered what had happened just before she had been knocked unconscious. The Doctor had been regenerating. Her Doctor was gone, replaced by a new man who was but wasn’t the same. She didn’t even know what he looked like, she had blacked out before the change had been completed.

And he had left her alone.

A sob escaped her before she could stop it. She shook her head, trying to clear it. The Doctor hadn’t left her to wake up alone on purpose; he was probably just worried about the TARDIS. The console room had been on fire last time Rose had seen it and, judging by the fact that the swimming pool was in the library and she could hear the cloister bell ringing in the distance, the rest of the ship probably wasn’t much better off.

Groaning a little at the discomfort of moving in wet clothes, Rose got to her feet. If the Doctor was anywhere, it would be the console room.

But he wasn’t. When Rose got to the room in question, she found it empty. But at least it wasn’t on fire anymore. There was a fire extinguisher near what was left of the jump seat as well as, bizarrely, a grappling hook. The exterior doors were wide open so Rose figured that the Doctor must have gone outside to see where they had landed. She was about to do the same when something caught her eye. The Doctor’s coat – the one that Janis Joplin had given him. It was on the ground, caught around the broken coral strut. Rose walked over and tugged it free. It was singed at the bottom and covered in ash and her first thought was that the Doctor was going to have a fit when he saw it... but then she remembered that she didn’t know if that were true anymore. The new Doctor may not give a damn about the coat. Somehow, that thought hurt more than the possibility of him leaving her alone in the damaged TARDIS.

She lifted the coat up to her face. It smelled of ash and burnt fabric but, underneath that, it still smelled like him. Like honey and bananas and that hair gel he loved so much.

Sniffing back the tears, Rose pulled the coat away from her face and put it over her shoulders instead. She threaded her arms through the sleeves and then pulled the loose fabric closed across her chest, telling herself that it was just because she was cold and wet and not because she was trying to hold on a little longer.

She was lying to herself and she knew it.

Knowing that she shouldn’t be wasting any more time, she walked across the room and out the open doors. They slammed shut as soon as she had crossed the threshold.

Once her eyes had become adjusted to the sunlight, Rose took in her surroundings. The TARDIS was in a garden outside a big house - like the ones that Rose used to dream of being able to afford. She couldn’t be certain, but it looked like she was in England.

Figuring that the house was the best place to start, she walked up to the door and was about to ring the doorbell when she heard shouting coming from upstairs. Shouting and a dog barking. Someone was causing trouble and Rose would bet her life that it was the Doctor. Not bothering with the doorbell, she pushed the door open and headed for the stairs. She could hear the voices more clearly now that she was inside.

‘I didn't send for back up!’ shouted a woman. She sounded cross but maybe that was just the Scottish accent.

‘I know,’ said a man, sounding a bit annoyed. Was that the Doctor?

Rose got to the landing and stopped as she took in the scene in front of her. A woman (with the most beautiful red hair that Rose had ever seen) in a police uniform that was way too short to be authentic was standing there, looking slightly terrified. Next to her was a man who was most definitely the Doctor. Because only the Doctor could get handcuffed to a wall by a stripper (or something of the like) by accident.

But, really, it was his eyes that gave him away. His face may have been different - younger with a bigger chin and floppy hair – but those eyes would always be the same.

‘Who’s she?’ asked the woman and the other person in the room - a middle-aged man with a dog - turned to face Rose. He was only standing a foot in front of her and when he turned around, Rose stumbled back in surprise. The man had far more teeth than any man should. This was an alien. An alien with a dog. That was a new one.

What _wasn’t_ new was that this alien looked very much like it was going in for the kill.

‘No, wait!’ shouted the Doctor. ‘She’s not a threat to you. None of us are a threat and we didn’t send for any back up and that is why you shouldn’t kill us.’

‘Attention, Prisoner Zero,’ came a booming voice from outside. ‘The human residence is surrounded. Attention Prisoner Zero. The human residence is surrounded.’

‘What's that?’ asked the redheaded woman.

‘That would be back up,’ said the Doctor quietly before raising his voice again and addressing the alien. ‘Okay, one more time. We do have back up and that's definitely why we're safe.’

‘Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated.’

‘Well, safe apart from, you know… incineration.’

‘Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated.’

The alien with the dog seemed distracted by the new threat and left the landing, probably to go look out the window. Rose decided that now would be a good time to help get the Doctor free from the handcuffs.

‘Hello,’ he grinned as soon as she knelt down beside him. He was banging his screwdriver against the floor, trying to get it to work.

‘Hello,’ she said, ‘getting into trouble already?’

‘Yeah, well, love a bit of trouble me. Can’t seem to stay away from it.’

‘How come you’re handcuffed?’ she asked, looking pointedly at the redhead.

The woman folded her arms. ‘He broke into my house,’ she said, defensively.

Now it was the Doctor's turn to be on the receiving end of Rose's look. ‘There is a doorbell, you know?’ she said.

‘Yes I know but I was a bit rushed for time, can we talk about this later? Ha!’ He had just got the screwdriver working long enough to undo the handcuffs. As soon as his hand was free, he used it to take Rose’s and pull them both to their feet. ‘Run!’ he said and with that one word, Rose felt a wave of relief wash over her. This was still her Doctor.

They ran down the stairs and out of the house. The booming voice was even louder now.

‘Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated.’

‘So why did you break into the house?’ Rose asked as the Doctor sonicked the front door shut behind them.

‘Because of Prisoner Zero,’ said the Doctor. ‘That was the man and the dog. Well, he’s not really a man and a dog. He’s a multiform. Pretty clever really. I ran in to warn Amelia and then _she_ ,’ he jabbed a finger at the redheaded woman who was right behind them as they ran through the front yard, ‘hit me with a cricket bat.’

‘I don’t blame her. Strange man running through her house shouting about monsters.’ Rose turned her head to face the woman, trying not to trip on the bottom of the Doctor’s coat that she was still wearing. ‘What’s with the police uniform?’ she asked.

‘He broke into my house,’ said the woman, annoyed and exasperated. ‘It was this or a French maid. What's going on?'

‘An alien convict is hiding in your spare room disguised as a man and a dog,’ said the Doctor as they reached the TARDIS, ‘and some other aliens are about to incinerate your house. Any questions?’

‘Yes,’ said Rose and the other woman together.

‘Me too. No, no, no, no! Don't do that, not now!’ He was banging on the TARDIS doors after several unsuccessful attempts at opening them.

‘What’s wrong?’ asked Rose. ‘Why isn’t she letting us in?’

‘She’s repairing herself,’ he told her. ‘Extensively. She must have been waiting for you to wake up and leave before she could start.’ He suddenly turned to face her, eyes wide. ‘Rose, if I had known she was this bad, I swear, I never would have left you in there. I mean, there was the thing with the engines but I thought I had sorted that. Well, sorted it a little.’ He shook his head as if to clear it. ‘I shouldn’t have left you in there anyway. Must be the regeneration, affecting my judgement.’

Rose was reassured by the honesty in his eyes. He hadn’t abandoned her in a dying spaceship. Well, he had… but he hadn’t realised the extent of the danger she was in. He still cared about her safety. He still cared about her.

Rose felt a little guilty for doubting him.

‘Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated,’ came the voice from the alien in the sky, bringing them all back to the situation at hand. The sound of a dog barking drew their attention towards the house and they saw the alien – Prisoner Zero – at the window.

‘Come on,’ said the redheaded woman, her fear returning. She grabbed the Doctor’s arm and started dragging him away from the TARDIS. The Doctor resisted… but it wasn't because he wanted to get into the TARDIS.

‘No, wait, hang on. Wait, wait, wait, wait,’ he said as he yanked his arm out of the woman’s grip and ran towards a garden shed. ‘The shed. I destroyed that shed last time I was here. Smashed it to pieces.’

‘So there's a new one,’ said the woman. ‘Let's go.’

‘Yeah, but the new one's got old. It's ten years old at least.’ He gave the wood a sniff and then swiped his finger along it. He brought the finger to his mouth to have a taste. So, not quite as bad as his previous self with the oral fixation, then. The last Doctor wouldn’t have hesitated in licking the shed wall.

‘Twelve years,’ he said after a couple of second to analyse the wood. ‘I'm not six months late, I'm twelve years late.’

The woman looked even more scared than before. ‘He's coming,’ she said.

But the Doctor wouldn’t be swayed. ‘You said six months,’ he said to the woman. ‘Why did you say six months?’

‘We've got to go.’

‘Doctor, she’s right,’ said Rose, eyeing the front door of the house warily. Prisoner Zero could appear at any moment.

‘This matters,’ said the Doctor, still talking to the redhead. ‘This is important. Why did you say six months?’

The woman snapped.

‘Why did you say five minutes!’ she shouted.

The Doctor’s eyes widened. This obviously meant something to him. ‘What?’ he said.

‘Look, I don’t know what this five minutes twelve years thing is about but can we discuss it on the move,’ said Rose.

The red haired woman nodded and grabbed the Doctor’s arm again. This time he allowed himself to be dragged away. He was still staring at the woman like she had sprouted a new head.

Rose took a brief moment to wonder what she had missed this time and then followed them out of the yard.

\----

As they made their way away from the house and into a quaint little village, the Doctor caught Rose up on everything that had happened. Apparently, when the Doctor had first left the TARDIS, he had met a little girl named Amelia Pond who had fed him fish fingers and custard (yuk!) and told him about a crack in her bedroom wall. This crack turned out to be not just in the wall, but in reality itself and through that crack was a prison. That’s where Prisoner Zero was from.

But that had been twelve years ago. The Doctor had had to make an emergency materialisation in the TARDIS and had aimed to land just five minutes after he had left but he had overshot it a bit (just more proof that he was the same man). Now Amelia Pond was all grown up and working as the resident kissogram (hence the outfit).

She was also the reason for the Doctor’s current state of confusion.

‘You hit me with a cricket bat,’ he said, a little shocked.

‘Twelve years,' Amelia reminded him.

‘A cricket bat.’

‘Twelve years and four psychiatrists.’

‘Four?’

Amy’s pace faltered a little. ‘I kept biting them,’ she admitted after a beat.

‘Biting them?’ asked Rose just as the Doctor asked ‘Why?’

Amelia slowed down a little. ‘They said you weren't real,’ she said, her voice more vulnerable than angry now. Rose was beginning to think that the Doctor had made quite an impression on young Amelia Pond… and it had left her with a few issues. Rose was well aware of what happens to the people the Doctor leaves behind. She had seen it first hand back when she had first met Sarah Jane. But Amelia had been a little girl when the Doctor had (unintentionally) abandoned her. It would have been so much worse for her.

The voice from the house echoed across the street, distracting Rose from her thoughts.

‘Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated.’

It was coming from an ice-cream van of all things.

‘No, no, no, come on. What?’ said Amelia. ‘We're being staked out by an ice-cream van.’

‘Had stranger,’ said Rose. ‘Oh, sorry, I’m Rose, by the way.’ 

Amelia gave her an awkward smile and nod before the three of them ran to investigate the van.

‘Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated.’

‘What's that?’ the Doctor asked the ice-cream man. ‘Why are you playing that?

‘It's supposed to be Claire De Lune,’ he said. The poor man looked terribly confused.

Then Rose noticed that the van speakers weren’t the only place the message was coming from. It was the radio too. ‘Doctor,’ she said, nodding at the radio. He picked it up and held to his ear.

And that wasn’t all. A jogger had stopped nearby and was looking at her headphones in confusion. And there was a woman a few metres away, looking at her mobile phone with a similar expression.

‘It’s everywhere,’ said Rose. ‘Anything with a speaker grill. Just like that kid from when we first met Jack.’

‘You’re right,’ agreed the Doctor. ‘But how far does it go?’

And with that, he ran towards the nearest house.

‘Doctor, what's happening?’ shouted Amelia as she and Rose quickly followed.

\----

By the time Rose and Amelia had caught up to the Doctor he was already introducing himself to the owner of the house, a sweet looking elderly woman. Well, maybe “introducing himself” wasn’t a too accurate term. He was spinning her a lie.

‘We're doing a special on television faults in this area,’ he said to the woman, and then, after taking notice of Amelia’s outfit, added, ‘Also crimes. Let's have a look.’ He took the remote from the woman and pointed it at the television that was showing the image of a giant eyeball. Every channel he flicked through showed the same thing.

The owner of the house seemed to know Amelia - or Amy, as she called her - and the two started an awkward discussion about what Amy did for a living.

‘What species is that?’ whispered Rose, leaning in closer so that the little old woman wouldn’t hear.

‘Don’t know yet,’ he said, not sharing Rose’s caution at being overheard.

‘Amy, who are your friends?’ asked the little owner of the house, bringing Rose and the Doctor back to the conversation.

‘I’m Rose,’ said Rose, ‘and this is the Doctor.’

‘Who's Amy?’ asked the Doctor before turning to face Amy. ‘You were Amelia.’

‘Yeah? Now I'm Amy,’ said Amy, back on the defensive.

The Doctor looked like he was personally offended by Amy’s change of name. ‘Amelia Pond. That was a great name,’ he said.

‘Bit fairy tale,’ said Amy, and, judging by the look that she and the Doctor shared, that meant something to the two of them.

‘I know you, don't I?’ said the little old woman, pointing to the Doctor and bringing him and Amy out of their staring match. ‘I've seen you somewhere before.’

Amy looked down at her shoes awkwardly.

‘Not me,’ said the Doctor. ‘Brand new face.’ He stretched his mouth wide as if to test how far it would go. ‘First time on. And what sort of job's a kissogram?’

Amy looked even more awkward than before.

‘I go to parties and I kiss people,’ she said. ‘With outfits. It's a laugh,’ she added at the Doctor’s expression.

‘You were a little girl five minutes ago,’ he said and Rose rolled her eyes. For a time traveller, you would think he would be used to this sort of thing.

‘You're worse than my aunt!’ said Amy.

‘I'm the Doctor. I'm worse than everybody's aunt.’ He turned to face the woman who owned the house they were in. ‘And that is not how I'm introducing myself.’

He picked up a radio and used the sonic to change the station. The same message as before played but it was in a different language. He did it again and they heard the message play in yet another language.

He put the radio down again. ‘Rose was right, it's everywhere,’ he said, ‘in every language. They're broadcasting to the whole world.’ He ran to the window and stuck his head out, looking towards the sky.

‘What's up there? What are you looking for?’ asked Amy.

‘There’s a spaceship up there somewhere,’ said Rose, figuring that it was too late to try and keep a low profile. Everybody was already looking at her and the Doctor weirdly anyway.

The Doctor pulled his head back inside the house and started pacing the living room, muttering to himself. ‘Okay. Planet this size, two poles, your basic molten core? They're going to need a forty percent fission blast.’ A young, well-built man walked into the living room and the Doctor walked up to him, looking him up and down… and still talking. ‘But they'll have to power up first, won't they? So assuming a medium sized starship, that's 20 minutes. What do you think, twenty minutes?’

The young man had a peculiar expression on his face, not the confused look that Rose would have expected but he was definitely trying to work something out.

‘Yeah, twenty minutes,’ continued the Doctor, walking away from the man. ‘We've got twenty minutes.’

‘Twenty minutes to what?’ asked Amy.

Rose was just about to give her the grim news when the newcomer finally spoke. And what he said was the last thing that Rose had expected.

‘Are you the Doctor?’

He was looking at the Doctor like he had just worked out his great puzzle. 

‘He is, isn't he?’ said the old woman, smiling. ‘He's the Doctor! The Raggedy Doctor.’ She turned to Amy. ‘All those cartoons you did when you were little. The Raggedy Doctor. It's him.’

‘Shut up,’ whispered Amy, embarrassed. It seemed that the Doctor had made even more of an impression on her than Rose had first thought.

‘Cartoons?’ asked the Doctor after a moment and then went to sit down on the armchair in front of the TV.

‘Gran, it's him, isn't it?’ said the man, watching the Doctor like he couldn’t believe he existed. ‘It's really him!’

‘Jeff, shut up,’ said Amy again before turning back to the Doctor. ‘Twenty minutes to what?’

‘The human residence will be incinerated,’ said the alien eyeball which was still showing on every TV channel.

‘The human residence. They're not talking about your house, they're talking about the planet,’ explained the Doctor. ‘Like Rose said, somewhere up there, there's a spaceship… and it's going to incinerate the planet.’

‘Repeat, Prisoner Zero will vacate the human residence or the human residence will be incinerated.’

‘Twenty minutes to the end of the world.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Honestly, the Eleventh Doctor rewrites are going to be the hardest for me because he is probably the Doctor I ship least with Rose (out of the New series Doctors anyway). But I am looking forward to the challenge of making him the man who he has turned into throughout my _Promises_ series, while still keeping him as the same Eleventh Doctor we all know and love.


	2. The Eleventh Hour Part Two

The Doctor, Rose and Amy left Jeff and his Gran with a promise that they would stop the world from ending and then made their way through the streets of the village, which Amy had told them was called Leadworth. The very _small_ village of Leadworth, it seemed. The Doctor liked the English countryside as much as the next bloke… but it didn’t exactly have much in the way of world-saving assets.

‘Well, that's good. Fantastic, that is,’ he said, letting out his frustration via sarcasm. ‘Twenty minutes to save the world and I've got a post office. And it's shut.’ Then something caught his eye. ‘What is that?’ he asked and then quickly ran ahead.

‘It's a duck pond,’ said Amy as the three of them walked up the edge of the small pond.

‘Why aren't there any ducks?’

‘I don't know. There's never any ducks.’

That was odd.

‘Then how do you know it's a duck pond?’

‘Doctor,’ said Rose, a little sternly. ‘Twenty minutes to save the world, remember?’

‘Right, yes, of course.’ It seemed that this new him was easily distracted. That could be a problem. ‘Saving the- ahhh!’ He clutched his chest as a white hot pain shot through him.

‘Doctor!’ shouted Rose, rushing to his side and grabbing his arm to help guide him down so he was sitting on the ground. He was almost positive he heard her whisper ‘not again.’ She must have been worried he would collapse like he had done the last time he had regenerated. In fairness, she had good reason to worry.

‘This is too soon,’ gasped the Doctor. ‘I'm not ready, I'm not done yet.’

Rose moved her hand to his back and started rubbing comforting circles. The effect was far better than any cup of tea and the Doctor felt the pain easing instantly. Which was a good thing too seeing as the light from the sun had just dimmed significantly.

‘What's wrong with the sun?’ asked Amy.

‘Forcefield,’ said Rose, saving the Doctor from having to explain. ‘Sealing us in, preparing for incineration.’

And, of course, what do the human race do when this happens? Take photos of it. Nearly every person in view had their mobile phones pointed at the sky. Typical.

‘This isn't real, is it?’ said Amy, more scared than disbelieving. ‘This is some kind of big wind up.’

‘Why would I wind you up?’ asked the Doctor as he let Rose help him up.

‘You told me you had a time machine.’

‘And you believed me.’

‘Then I grew up.’

‘Oh, you never want to do that.’ Then the Doctor realised what he had seen and missed. Yep, definitely easily distracted, this him. ‘No. Hang on. Shut up. Wait. I missed it,' he said. 'I saw it and I missed it. What did I see?’

He ran through the last two minutes in his mind, trying to pinpoint what he saw that was out of place. There! That was it! While nearly everybody was taking pictures of the sun, there was one man – a nurse – who was taking pictures of the people. Or, more specifically, a man. A man and a dog. Prisoner Zero.

The Doctor turned to Amy, determined to relieve her of the fear that was still showing on her face. ‘Twenty minutes. I can do it,’ he said with as much confidence as he could muster (which was quite a lot, actually). ‘Twenty minutes, the planet burns. Run to your loved ones and say goodbye, or stay and help me and Rose.’

‘No.’

That had not been the answer that the Doctor had been expecting.

‘I'm sorry?’

‘No!’

This time Amy shouted the word and then grabbed the Doctor’s tie and started dragging him towards a car that had just pulled up on the side of the road.

‘What are you doing?’ shouted Rose as Amy slammed the tie in the car door, trapping him. She took the keys from the driver and pressed the lock button.

‘Are you out of your mind?’ shouted the Doctor, uselessly tugging on his tie.

‘Who are you?’ asked Amy. There was no fear in her voice now, just accusation.

‘You know who I am.’

‘No, really. Who are you?’

‘Does it matter?’ asked Rose. ‘The world is going to end in less then twenty minutes and he is the best person to stop it.’

‘Well, he’d better talk quickly, then.’

‘Amy, I am going to need my car back,’ said the driver who was staring at the three of them with a dumfounded expression.

‘Yes, in a bit,’ Amy told him, curtly. ‘Now go and have coffee.’

The man gave a mumbled agreement and twaddled off, giving them another confused glance of his shoulder as he went. It hadn’t been much of a distraction but it had been enough for the Doctor to get what he needed out of his pocket. ‘Catch,’ he said as he threw it to Amy. She expertly caught it in one hand and stared down in wonder at the still-fresh apple that she had given him twelve years ago. The one she had carved a face into.

‘I'm the Doctor,’ he told her, his voice kind and soft despite the urgency of the situation. ‘I'm a time traveller. Everything I told you twelve years ago is true. I'm real. What's happening in the sky is real, and if you don't let me go right now, everything you've ever known is over.’

‘I don't believe you,’ she said. But her eyes told a different story.

‘Just twenty minutes,’ begged the Doctor. ‘Just believe me for twenty minutes.’ He nodded at the apple in Amy’s hand. ‘Look at it. Fresh as the day you gave it to me. And you know it's the same one. Amy, believe for twenty minutes.’

After a couple of beats, Amy lifted the key and pressed the button that unlocked the car. The Doctor opened the door and freed his tie. ‘Thank you,’ he said.

Amy gave a small nod. ‘What do we do?’ she asked.

‘Stop that nurse.’

Thankfully, the nurse in question was still nearby, looking through the pictures he had just taken. The Doctor ran up and took the phone out of his hand and went through them. They weren’t just of the man and his dog; there were a few different people.

He looked up at the nurse and threw the phone back to him. ‘The sun's going out, and you're photographing a man and a dog. Why?’

The man looked a little taken a back at the question, like he was scared of answering, but some of that fear vanished when Amy and Rose appeared. ‘Amy,’ he said, relieved, like he hoped she would save him from the strange man asking questions.

‘Hi!’ said Amy with the first smile that the Doctor had seen from her since she was a little girl. She looked at the Doctor and her smile turned into something more awkward. ‘Oh, this is Rory, he's a friend,’ she introduced the nurse.

‘Boyfriend,’ corrected Rory.

‘Kind of boyfriend.’

‘Man and dog. Why?’ the Doctor interrupted, trying to get them back on point.

But Rory still wasn’t answering his questions.

‘Oh my God, it's him,’ he said, looking at the Doctor in much the same way Jeff had done earlier. Obviously he had seen Amy’s cartoons too.

‘Just answer his question, please,’ said Amy, embarrassed.

‘It's him, though. The Doctor. The Raggedy Doctor.’

Did they really have to keep calling him that? He wasn’t _that_ raggedy, was he? He risked a quick glance at Rose out the corner of his eye but she gave no indication of what she though of the new him. Did she think he was raggedy too?

‘But he was a story,’ Rory was saying. ‘He was a game.’

The Doctor had had enough of this. He grabbed Rory by the front of his shirt and pulled him close. ‘Man and dog. Why? Tell me now,’ he said, his tone leaving no option for a reply other than the one he was looking for.

‘Sorry,’ said Rory and he actually looked like he meant it, even if he was a bit scared. ‘Because he can't be there. Because he's in a hospital, in a coma.’ The Doctor had said the last bit with him. Rory gave a nervous nod. ‘Yeah.’

The Doctor released him. ‘Knew it. Multiform, you see? Disguise itself as anything, but it needs a life feed. A psychic link with a living but dormant mind.’ He turned to Rose, hoping to see some kind of reaction from her to show that she was impressed. She smiled at him but the Doctor didn’t miss the way she clutched the coat she was wearing a little tighter. Maybe his display had had the opposite effect? Maybe it was making her miss the old him more?

What if she wanted him to change back? Doctor knew how much a Time Lord could change after a regeneration. What if the man he was now wasn’t the sort of man that Rose wanted? He knew she wouldn’t leave him - she had proven that many times before - but not leaving wasn’t the same as still loving. And he wanted her to love him for the man he was now and not just the echo of who he used to be.

He wasn’t sure of what to do but the decision was taken out of his hands (for the moment, at least) when the sound of barking echoed across the square. They all turned to see a very familiar man and dog.

‘Prisoner Zero,’ said the Doctor, eyeing Prisoner Zero with caution.

‘What? There's a Prisoner Zero too?’ asked Rory but Amy shushed him.

‘Doctor, up there,’ said Rose and they all followed her gaze to see a small spaceship flying overhead. It wasn’t like any spaceship the Doctor had ever seen. Oh, but it was beautiful! Even if it did have a giant eyeball in the middle of the base of the ship. It was zipping through the sky, shining a light all around, scanning the area.

‘See, that ship up there is scanning this area for non-terrestrial technology,’ the Doctor told Prisoner Zero, his mind already formulating a plan. ‘And nothing says non-terrestrial like a sonic screwdriver.’

He lifted said sonic screwdriver into the air and pressed the button. Streetlights started exploding and car alarms started going off. A whole lot of noise and chaos – perfect for attracting the alien spaceship. Then that spaceship could take Prisoner Zero away and the Earth would be safe.

Or at least it would have been if it had lasted long enough. But the sonic screwdriver was still damaged from when Prisoner Zero had gotten a hold of it earlier and the Doctor dropped it as it sparked in his hand. ‘No, no!’ he shouted and then he quickly turned to Rose. ‘Where’s yours?’

‘I lost it two days ago,’ she said, a bit annoyed. ‘Kidnapped remember?’

As if he could forget. The amount of worry that the Doctor had been through over the last few days, he was surprised that he hadn’t just spontaneously regenerated out of stress.

‘Right, of course, yes, sorry,’ he said, and then turned back to watch the spaceship. Maybe it had been enough. It was awfully close; maybe it would still find what it was looking for.

But no such luck. The spaceship finished its scan and then zoomed off to look somewhere else. ‘No, come back!’ the Doctor shouted after it. ‘He's here! Come back! He's here. Prisoner Zero is here. Come back, he's here! Prisoner Zero is…’

Disappearing down the drain apparently. The man and the dog had sort of dissolved and escaped via the drain next to them.

‘It’s hiding,’ said Rose. ‘Where would it go? Where would it consider safe?’

Amy was still staring at the drain in shock but she quickly shook herself out of it at Rose’s question. ‘My house?’ she said, not quite sure. ‘It was there for twelve years after all.’ She paused as she took in what she had just said. ‘Twelve years. How could it have been hiding in my house for twelve years?’

‘Multiforms can live for millennia,’ explained the Doctor. ‘Twelve years is a pit-stop. But I don’t think it will go back there. Not now that we know it has been living there.’

‘So how come you show up again on the same day that lot do?’ asked Amy. ‘The same minute.’ It seemed she had gone beck to her accusing tone. The Doctor wasn’t surprised. Everybody accused him off this eventually. And usually they had a point.

‘They're looking for him, but they followed me,’ he said, quickly. He needed Amy to trust him but they were on a time limit. ‘They saw me through the crack, got a fix, they're only late because I am.’

‘What's he on about?’ asked Rory.

The Doctor turned to him. ‘Nurse boy - Rory was it?' He didn't wait for an answer. 'Give me your phone.’

‘Still rude,’ said Rose. The Doctor turned to her and grinned, happy for the familiar teasing tone.

‘And still not ginger.’ He turned back to Rory, who was still doubting the Doctor’s existence. ‘Phone. Now. Give me.’

Rory reluctantly handed the phone over. ‘He was just a game,’ he said to Amy. ‘We were kids. You made me dress up as him.’

But the Doctor had stopped listening; he was too busy taking a better look at the pictures on Rory’s phone. ‘These photos, they're are all coma patients?’ he asked him.

‘Yeah.’

‘No,’ the Doctor corrected, ‘they're all the multiform. Eight comas, eight disguises for Prisoner Zero.’

‘At least we got some mug shots then,’ said Rose.

‘He had a dog, though,’ said Amy. ‘There's a dog in a coma?’

‘Well, the coma patient dreams he's walking a dog, Prisoner Zero gets a dog. Laptop!’ The Doctor had just realised what Rose had said and now a brilliant idea was forming. Mug shots! If they could get those photos to the alien’s searching for Prisoner Zero, then maybe they had a chance. He turned to Amy. ‘Your friend, what was his name?’ He pointed to Rory. ‘Not him, the good-looking one.’

‘Thanks,’ said Rory, not grateful at all.

‘Jeff,’ answered Amy and Rory’s sarcasm doubled.

‘Oh, thanks.’

Rose gave him a consoling pat on the shoulder.

‘He had a laptop in his bag,’ continued the Doctor. ‘A laptop. Big bag, big laptop. I need Jeff's laptop. You two, get to the hospital. Get everyone out of that ward. Clear the whole floor. Phone me when you're done. Rose, with me.’

He went to run back to Jeff’s house but Rose called out to him, stopping him in his tracks.

‘Actually, Doctor, maybe I should go with Amy and Rory,’ she said. She must have noticed his face fall because she quickly explained. ‘They’re new to this. They might need me.’

The words 'but _I_ need you' were on the tip of the Doctor’s tongue but he held them back. She was right, after all. She would be more help to Amy and Rory than she would to him.

He gave her a nod. ‘Be careful,’ he said.

She gave him a small smile. ‘You too, now go. Less than twenty minutes, remember?’

She ran back towards Amy and Rory who were already halfway towards Rory’s car. The Doctor watched her go and then turned and ran in the opposite direction, trying not to focus on how empty his hand felt.


	3. The Eleventh Hour Part Three

Rose, Amy and Rory walked through the deserted upper floors of the hospital. It seemed there had been an incident and everybody who could be evacuated, had been evacuated. The only reason that Rose, Amy and Rory had gotten past reception was because, in the panic, the receptionist had been fooled by Amy’s police outfit.

‘Oh god,’ said Amy as they reached the coma ward. The whole place was a mess.

‘Prisoner Zero’s been here,’ said Rose and then she jumped as a woman with two children appeared from one of the corridors.

‘Officer,’ said the woman, looking to Amy.

‘What happened?’ asked Amy, neither confirming or denying the woman's assumption.

‘There was a man. A man with a dog. I think Doctor Ramsden's dead. And the nurses.’

Amy straight away got her phone out to call the Doctor to tell him the news. Rose reached for one of the little girls’ hands. ‘It’s all right, you’re safe now,’ she said, hoping she sounded more reassuring than she thought she was. ‘We can get you out.’

‘He was so angry,’ said the little girl… but the voice was the same as her mother’s. ‘He kept shouting and shouting. And that dog. The size of that dog. I swear it was rabid. And he just went mad, attacking everyone.’

Rose lowered her hand and backed up a few steps. As did Rory and Amy.

‘Where did he go, did you see?' continued the little girl. 'Has he gone? We hid in the ladies.’ There was a pause as Prisoner Zero realised their mistake. ‘Oh, I'm getting it wrong again, aren't I?’ they said, now speaking through the woman again. ‘I'm always doing that. So many mouths.’

All three of the multiform’s mouths opened, revealing the pointy teeth of Prisoner Zero’s true form.

‘Run!’ shouted Rose.

Amy and Rory did not need telling twice and, together, the three of them ran until they reached the room at the end of the corridor. Once inside, they put a broom through the door handles but Rose knew that it wouldn’t stop Prisoner Zero for long. And the room had no other exits. They were trapped. Rose flinched as the doors shook violently.

She took the phone out of Amy’s hand and held it up to her ear. The Doctor was still on the other end of the line and he was their only hope now. ‘Doctor, we’re trapped in the coma ward,’ she told him.

‘I’m nearly there,’ he said. ‘Which window are you?’

Rose turned to Rory. ‘Which window are we?’ she asked him. In all the running, she had lost her bearings.

Rory looked a bit confused by the question but answered anyway.

‘First floor, on the left, fourth from the end.’

Rose repeated the answer to the Doctor but accidentally hung up the phone when she jumped back from the broom splintering. Prisoner Zero had broken through.

‘Oh, dear little Amelia Pond,’ they taunted. ‘I've watched you grow up. Twelve years, and you never even knew I was there. Little Amelia Pond, waiting for her magic Doctor to return. But not this time, Amelia.’

Prisoner Zero opened their mouth(s), once again revealing the pointy teeth of their true form. Rose, Amy and Rory backed up a few places, now right near the window. The phone in Rose’s hand beeped and she looked down to read the one word text message.

_Duck!_

‘Get down!’ she shouted, grabbing Amy and Rory by the arms and dragging them to the floor. And just in time too. Not a second later, the window they had been backed up against shattered as a fire truck’s ladder came smashing through, closely followed by the Doctor. ‘Right! Hello,’ he said as he climbed off the ladder and into the coma ward. ‘Am I late?’ He looked at the clock on the wall that read 11:48. ‘No, three minutes to go. Still time.’

‘Time for what, Time Lord?’ asked Prisoner Zero. Rose and the Doctor looked at the multiform suspiciously but it didn’t seem bothered. In fact, the woman’s face was almost smug.

‘Take the disguise off,’ said the Doctor, walking into the middle of the room, a few feet away from Prisoner Zero. ‘They'll find you in a heartbeat. Nobody dies.’

‘The Atraxi will kill me this time,’ said Prisoner Zero, finally giving a name to the giant eyeball alien that was searching for them. ‘If I am to die, let there be fire.’

‘Why do they always have to take everyone else down with them?’ muttered Rose under her breath. Why couldn’t thing be easy, just for once?

The Doctor seemed to agree with her unspoken thought. ‘You came to this world by opening a crack in space and time. Do it again. Just leave,’ he said to Prisoner Zero.

‘I did not open the crack,’ said Prisoner Zero.

‘Well who did then?’ asked Rose.

Prisoner Zero turned their face (one of them, anyway) towards Rose. ‘The cracks in the skin of the universe, don't you know where they came from?’ They turned back to the Doctor. ‘You don't, do you?’

‘So tell me then,’ said the Doctor but Prisoner Zero was enjoying this far too much to give him any answers.

‘The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know. Doesn't know. Doesn't know!’ they said in a child’s sing-song voice. The three faces became serious again and Prisoner Zero’s voice changed back into that of the older woman. ‘The universe is cracked. The Pandorica will open. Silence will fall.’

That sounded ominous. But there would be time to worry about that later. Right now, whatever plan the Doctor had put into action was coming to point.

‘And we're off!’ he said, pointing at the clock on the wall. ‘Look at that. Look at that!’

The clock now read 0:00.

‘Zero,’ said Rose. ‘As in Prisoner Zero.’

The Doctor gave her an impressed smile that was different from the one she was used to but still made her feel the same way as it always had done.

‘Exactly,’ he said. ‘Right now, in one little bedroom, my team are working. Jeff and the world. And do you know what they're doing? They're spreading the word all over the world, quantum fast. The word is out. And that word is Zero.’

Now it was Rose’s turn to give the impressed smile.

‘Now, me,’ the Doctor continued, ‘if I was up in the sky in a battleship, monitoring all Earth communications, I'd probably take that as a hint. And if I had a whole battle fleet surrounding the planet, I'd be able track a simple old computer virus to its source in, what, under a minute? The source, by the way, is right here.’ He held up Rory’s mobile phone that he had taken earlier and, as if waiting for his cue, a bright light shone through the windows of the hospital. The Atraxi were here. ‘Oh! And I think they just found us!’

Prisoner Zero seemed unconcerned with the new development.

‘The Atraxi are limited. While I'm in this form, they'll still be unable to detect me. They've tracked a phone, not me.’

‘Yeah, but this is the good bit,’ said the Doctor, really excited now. ‘I mean, this is my favourite bit. Do you know what this phone is full of? Pictures of you. Every form you've learned to take, right here.’ He pressed a button on the phone. ‘And being uploaded about now. And the final score is, no TARDIS, no screwdriver, two minutes to spare.’ He held his arms out wide. ‘Who da man?’

There was an awkward pause while everyone just looked at him weirdly. Rose almost laughed. His plan was very impressive but he had gone a bit far in the celebrations.

The Doctor lowered his arms, his triumphant smile replaced by a look of disappointment and a touch of embarrassment.

‘Oh, I'm never saying that again. Fine.’

‘Then I shall take a new form,’ said Prisoner Zero. The lack of worry in their tone made Rose a bit uneasy.

‘Oh, stop it,’ said the Doctor. ‘You know you can't. It takes months to form that kind of psychic link.’

‘And I've had years.’

It only took a second for Rose to realise what Prisoner Zero had meant but that second was all it took for Amy to fall to the floor unconscious.

‘No! Amy?’ shouted the Doctor as he, Rose and Rory knelt down next to her. The Doctor cupped her face in his hands lightly tapping her cheeks, trying to wake her up. ‘You've got to hold on. Amy? Don't sleep! You've got to stay awake, please.’

‘Doctor…’ said Rory, tapping the Doctor on the shoulder. Rose looked up away from Amy and followed Rory’s gaze to see Prisoner Zero’s new form. The woman and her two children were gone, replaced by a perfect copy of the Doctor.

‘Well, that's rubbish. Who's that supposed to be?’ asked the Doctor, now looking at Prisoner Zero as well.

Rory furrowed his eyebrows, confused. ‘It's you.’

The Doctor looked his clone up and down and took a look at his own body. ‘Me? Is that what I look like?’

‘You don't know?’

‘Busy day.’

‘But why’s it taken your form, though?’ asked Rose. ‘I thought it was going to copy Amy?’

‘I am,’ said a child’s voice, and from behind the Doctor’s copy, emerged another person - a little red-haired girl. She was holding the copied Doctor’s hand. This must have been Amy back when she was Amelia. Back when she had first met the Doctor.

‘Poor Amy Pond,’ continued Prisoner Zero in Amelia’s heavy Scottish accent. ‘Still such a child inside. Dreaming of the magic Doctor she knows will return to save her. What a disappointment you've been.’

A flicker of guilt passed over the Doctor’s face before the resolve set in. ‘No, she's dreaming about me because she can hear me,’ he said and he bent back down to talk to the unconscious Amy. ‘Amy, don't just hear me, listen. Remember the room, the room in your house you couldn't see. Remember you went inside. I tried to stop, but you did. You went in the room. You went inside. Amy, dream about what you saw.’

Whatever the Doctor was doing must have been working because now Prisoner Zero finally did look worried. ‘No!’ they shouted but to no avail. The multiform changed again and now looked more like a floating snake or eel. Rose knew it was their true form; she recognised the large pointy teeth.

‘Well done, Prisoner Zero,’ said the Doctor, walking up so he was face to face with the alien. ‘A perfect impersonation of yourself.’

Suddenly the bright light of the Atraxi’s scanners illuminated Prisoner Zero. The alien thrashed about, trying to escape, but the light must have acted as some sort of forcefield, keeping them there.

‘Prisoner Zero is located. Prisoner Zero is restrained,’ came the booming voice of the Atraxi.

Prisoner Zero started to fade as the Atraxi took them away, but they didn’t go without having the final word.

‘Silence, Doctor,’ they hissed. ‘Silence will fall.’

The Atraxi’s scanner beam faded and the sky outside returned to its previous sunny disposition. But the Doctor didn’t look too happy about it.

‘The sun. It's back to normal, right?’ said Rory. ‘That's, that's good, yeah? That means it's over.’ Then his attention was turned elsewhere when Amy started to stir. ‘Amy. Are you okay? Are you with us?’

‘What happened?’ she mumbled as she sat up.

‘He did it. The Doctor did it.’ He sounded somewhat surprised but still strangely proud. Rose wondered just how much Amy had made the Doctor a part of not just her life, but Rory’s too.

‘No, I didn't,’ said the Doctor in response to Rory’s statement. He had the phone in his hand again and was pressing buttons.

‘Calling someone?’ asked Rose.

‘Will be in a minute. But first I have to track the signal back.’ He turned to Rory. ‘Sorry in advance.’

Rory looked confused again. ‘About what?’ he asked.

‘The bill.’

The Doctor finished his button pressing and held the phone up to his ear. ‘Oi, I didn't say you could go! Article fifty seven of the Shadow Proclamation. This is a fully established level five planet, and you were going to burn it? What? Did you think no one was watching? You lot, back here, now.’ He hung up the phone and threw it to Rory (who surprisingly caught it) ‘Okay, now I've done it.’

‘Did you just call the Atraxi?’ asked Rose as she and Amy followed the Doctor out of the coma ward.

‘Yep.’

Poor Rory was still on the floor, still highly confused. ‘Did he just bring them back?’ he shouted after them. ‘Did he just save the world from aliens and then bring all the aliens back again?’

\----

After a quick stop off to “borrow” some clothes from the locker room, the Doctor, Amy, Rose and Rory walked out onto the roof of the hospital where the Atraxi were waiting for them. The Doctor walked on ahead, now looking far less raggedy in his new clothes (he had given the others quite a show back in the locker room when he had gotten changed in front of them but he hadn’t cared). He still had a few different ties draped around his neck, though. He was having trouble choosing.

‘So this was a good idea, was it?’ asked Amy. ‘They were leaving.’ Now that the aliens were right above their heads, she seemed to have lost her confidence.

‘Leaving is good,’ agreed the Doctor. ‘Never coming back is better.’ He looked up towards the spaceship. ‘Come on, then! The Doctor will see you now!’

The eyeball in the middle of the ship dropped down so that it was right in front of the Doctor. It was nearly twice his height and almost certainly had the ability to kill him in a matter of seconds but the Doctor wasn’t intimidated. He had faced bigger and badder things than the Atraxi in his many years of space and time travel. A bright light came out of the giant eye and passed over the Doctor, scanning him.

‘You are not of this world,’ said the Atraxi once it had finished its scan.

‘No, but I've put a lot of work into it,’ answered the Doctor before looking down at the ties around his neck. He held one up to the Atraxi. ‘I don't know. What do you think?’ When the giant eye didn’t give a response, he turned to Rose. ‘Any good?’

Rose just nodded, not really paying attention. She was more focussed on the alien that had not long ago been threatening to burn the planet. The Doctor was a little disheartened at that but shook the feeling away. Admittedly, it probably wasn’t the best time to be questioning her about his new appearance. Even if the uncertainty was killing him.

‘Is this world important?’ asked the Atraxi, uninterested by the Doctor’s vanity issues.

‘Important?’ asked the Doctor as chucked the tie behind him. He had lost his liking for that one. ‘Six billion people live here, of course it’s important. And what’s more, it is not a threat to the Atraxi.’ He chucked another tie away, leaving him just one left. ‘And you know I’m right because you're monitoring the whole planet. So, come on, tell me. Is this world a threat?’

A light shone out of the Atraxi’s eye again and a projection appeared between it and the Doctor. Images flashed in quick succession, showing various images of the Earth’s places and people. The image finally settled on a projection of the Earth.

‘No,’ admitted the Atraxi, answering the Doctor’s question.

But the Doctor had another one for them. ‘Are the peoples of this world guilty of any crime by the laws of the Atraxi?’ he asked.

More images of more people flashed by on the projection.

‘No.’

This was going exactly how the Doctor had hoped. ‘Okay,’ he said, hiding the relief from his voice. He started tying his one remaining tie around his neck. ‘One more question. Just one. Is this world protected?’ The projection changed again to show the various aliens and monsters that had tried invading the Earth over the years. ‘Because you're not the first lot to come here. Oh, there have been so many. And what you've got to ask is, what happened to them?’

This time when the image changed, it showed images of the Doctor. All of him. Nearly every one of his past faces. The Doctor stepped through the projection so he could face the Atraxi, eye to eye, so to speak. He was now fully dressed with his tweed jacket and bowtie in place.

‘Hello,’ he said. ‘I'm the Doctor. Basically… run.’

After a few seconds of indecision, the Atraxi headed his warning and zoomed off. The Doctor was fairly confident that they wouldn’t be back.

Suddenly a hand grasped his and the Doctor looked down to see Rose’s smiling face. ‘You did it,’ she said, sounding proud rather than shocked. The Doctor smiled back at her and for a moment it was just like the last time he had regenerated – when he had defeated the Sycorax and Rose had accepted that he was still the same man underneath the new face.

He felt a warm tingly sensation in his left heart and it took a few moments to realise that the heat was actually real and not just some over-romantic metaphor. He reached into his breast pocket and pulled out the TARDIS key, which was now glowing brightly. He looked to Rose, his smile even wider. ‘She’s ready,’ he said, taking her hand in his. 

Together, they ran across the roof and back towards the stairs. They were almost all the way out of the hospital by the time that Amy and Rory had realised that they had gone.

\----

The Doctor turned the key in the lock and opened the TARDIS doors with a dramatic flourish. He heard Rose’s intake of breath beside him and he understood the reaction. The TARDIS had repaired herself and now had a brand new desktop theme for the console room. Gone was the darkened lighting and coral struts. Now the console room was bright and colourful. There were two levels – the main one and then one underneath for easy access to the TARDIS inner workings (handy for repairs, thought the Doctor) – separated by a glass floor. The scanner was now slightly above eye height rather than right above the buttons of the console.

Speaking of buttons, there weren’t too many of them. A lot had been replaced by seemingly random objects (like taps and things). There was another, larger scanner screen on one of the walls that made the Doctor a little nostalgic. He had missed having a proper screen on the wall. There were stairs that led up towards a set of doors that led deeper into the TARDIS and the Doctor couldn’t wait to see what other changes the TARDIS had made.

‘Look at you,’ he said as he and Rose stepped inside. ‘Oh, you sexy thing! Look at you.’

He ran up to the console and started pressing buttons and activating contraptions. The controls were unfamiliar but he still knew exactly which ones did what... Except for the little blue buttons. He wasn’t really sure about them. They probably weren’t important.

He finished the dematerialisation sequence and the central column began to move up and down, sending them away from Earth. He pressed a few more buttons, setting the coordinates, and a minute later, the TARDIS stilled as she landed on the moon.

The Doctor turned to Rose, beaming, but his smile fell when he saw that she was not sharing his excitement. Instead, she was looking around uncertainly, clutching the coat around her more tightly.

‘What’s wrong?’ he asked her.

The sound of his voice seemed to snap her out of her trance. ‘Nothing,’ she said, giving him a reassuring smile that didn’t reach her eyes. ‘I just didn’t expect her to change, that’s all. Didn’t know she could.’

Crap! Another thing he had neglected to warn her about. ‘Oh, she’s had a few renovations over the years,’ he said, trying to shrug off the awkwardness of the moment.

Just then, the console beeped and the Doctor turned to see that the TARDIS had pushed a brand new sonic screwdriver up through a hole in one of the panels. He snatched it up, his excitement returning. ‘Oh look, a new one.’ It was a bit chunkier in his hand but still felt right. He pressed the button and the tip glowed green instead of blue.

‘I thought you made your own sonic screwdrivers,’ said Rose, staring at the device.

The Doctor turned it off and pocketed it. ‘I do usually but sometimes the old girl helps me out. I can get her to make you one too. A brand new one. You can have any design you like.’

‘I want my old one,’ she said. There was an underlining sadness in her voice and the Doctor hoped that she was only referring to the screwdriver.

The Doctor nodded. ‘Of course,’ he said, his excitement once again disappearing. ‘I’ll make you another one, just like the old one.’

‘Thanks,’ she said but that sadness was still there in her voice and in her eyes. She opened her mouth to say something more but the Doctor cut her off.

‘Rose Tyler, I love you,’ he said in a bit of a rush. ‘Sorry. I just needed to say it. Got interrupted last time.’

Rose just stared at him for a few seconds before tears started to well up in her eyes.

‘Hey, now, none of that,’ he said as he took the two strides needed to reach her and wrap his arms around her. She mumbled something against his chest. ‘Sorry, didn’t catch that,’ he said, pulling away slightly.

She looked up at him and he was relieved to see that although there were still tears in her eyes, she was smiling. ‘I said, I love you too,’ she told him. Then her brow crinkled in the adorable way it always did when she was confused. ‘Did you just call the TARDIS sexy before?’ she asked.

The Doctor couldn’t help but laugh. ‘Yeah, I did,’ he admitted. ‘And she is!’ His laughter died down and he lifted his fingers to trail them through Rose’s hair that was still slightly damp from their dip in the pool earlier. 'Not as sexy as you though.’

Rose looked back up at him, her eyes shining with the love that had always been there (even back when he hadn’t seen it) and the Doctor decided that he couldn’t wait any longer. He leant in to kiss her - to finally discover what her lips felt like on his new ones - but paused, his lips mere centimetres away from hers, and waited for her to meet him half way. It only took a second for her to close the distance between them but it felt like an eternity. The Doctor hummed in appreciation as he finally got the confirmation that she still tasted and felt the same to this new body of his.

‘Still a great kisser,’ she said once they had pulled away from each other enough to speak.

The Doctor grinned, happy to know that there was something about this new him that she liked... But what about the rest of him?

‘So, what do you think?’ he asked, stepping back and holding his arms out wide.

But Rose misunderstood the question, or at least, she pretended to. ‘Of the new desktop?’ she asked, looking around the console room. ‘It’s nice. Not sure about the glass floor, though.’

The Doctor lowered his arms, his smile gone. ‘No, not the TARDIS. Me! What do you think of the new look?’ He did a spin, forcing a smile back on his face.

‘Are you keeping the bowtie?’

‘Why? Don’t you like it?’ He fiddled with the tie, nervously.

‘No, I do,’ said Rose, taking hold of his hand and bringing it away so that she could smooth the tie out. ‘It’s kinda cool.’

‘But really,’ he said, softer this time, letting his vulnerability show. ‘What do you think?’

Rose looked him up and down. ‘Well, I haven’t had a proper look yet, have I?’ she said. The Doctor suspected that she might be teasing.

‘I got changed right in front of you,’ he said. ‘Weren’t you watching?’

‘Well… yeah,’ she admitted. ‘But it wasn’t long enough for me to completely appreciate the view.’

Yep, she was definitely teasing.

‘How rude of me,’ he said, matching her playful tone.

‘Indeed.’

‘Well allow me to redeem myself.’

He held out his hand and waggled his fingers invitingly. It only took a moment for her to put her hand in his and when she did, all the anxiety the Doctor had felt over the last hour melted away. Now happier than he ever thought possible, he led Rose towards where he hoped their bedroom still was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If anyone would like to read what happens directly after the end of this chapter, you can find it here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/12134466  
> For anyone who is unfamiliar with the series, the main stories are smut free but I like to post these extra little scenes separately. That way, people who don't like to read smut can still enjoy the series while the people who do like to read it are not disappointed. Well... that may not be strictly true. They may be disappointed. I'm not that great at writing smut (yet another reason why it is in its own separate fic).


	4. The Eleventh Hour Part Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a short one. I originally had it as part of the last chapter but it just didn't read very well so I broke it up into two chapters instead.

‘We really shouldn’t have left them like that,’ said Rose. She was currently snuggled up against the Doctor’s bare chest as they lay in their bed (that was thankfully the same as it always had been apart from the bedspread being a lighter shade of blue). He was drawing familiar circles on her shoulder with his finger.

‘Hmm?’ he asked.

‘Amy and Rory. We just sort of ran off. We should go back.’

The Doctor stilled his finger and gave a little sigh. ‘Yeah, you’re right,’ he agreed. ‘You know, I was thinking… Amelia’s house is way too big for just her and her aunt. It doesn’t make sense. And what with that crack-’ 

Rose lifted herself up and put a finger on his lips to silence him. ‘No,’ she said, simply.

The Doctor furrowed his brow, confused. ‘No what?’ he asked, his words slightly muffled by Rose’s finger.

‘No, we don’t do that. We don’t invite people along because they are a mystery to be solved. We invite them because they are amazing and deserve to see the universe.’ 

She lowered her finger away from his lips so that he could speak again. ‘I didn’t mean that Amy isn’t amazing,’ he said. ‘She is.’

‘And that’s why you want to invite her?’ The Doctor went to answer but Rose cut in first. ‘No lying, remember.’

The Doctor faltered. ‘Its because of both,’ he admitted after a beat.

‘And Rory?’

‘Which one was Rory? The good looking one?’

‘You’re the good looking one.’ The Doctor smiled, obviously pleased with Rose’s statement. She rolled her eyes at him. ‘Rory is Amy’s boyfriend.’

‘Oh, him. Yeah, he was okay too, I guess.’

‘I thought so.’

The Doctor sat up so that he could face her properly. ‘When you say, you thought he was okay… is that okay as in okay companion material, or okay as in he is okay looking?’

Rose thought for a moment. ‘Both.’

‘But you still prefer me?’

Rose took pity on him then. She had only been teasing but the look in the Doctor’s eyes told her that he was still a little unsure of himself. ‘I will always prefer you,’ she told him, reaching out to take his hand in hers. ‘Even if you had grey hair and big bushy eyebrows.’

The Doctor chuckled but was obviously relieved. ‘I’ll remember you said that,’ he said before leaning in to kiss her.

Rose gladly surrendered to the kiss but didn’t let it last as long as she would have liked it to. ‘So, Amy and Rory?’ she said after she had pulled away.

He grinned that grin of his that was just as big as the one he had in his last body, just without showing all the teeth. ‘Right, Amy and Rory. Let’s go get them.’

\----

Rose leaned up against the console as she watched the Doctor (who was back in his tweed and bowtie ensemble) lead Amy into the TARDIS. She always loved to watch peoples’ expressions when they first saw the interior of the time ship. Their eyes would always light up with wonder and disbelief.

Amy was no exception.

‘Well? Anything you want to say?’ the Doctor asked her. ‘Any passing remarks? I've heard them all.’

‘I'm in my nightie.’

Rose let out a laugh. ‘I’m pretty sure you stand corrected,’ she told the Doctor, and, judging by the look on his face, she was right. She walked up to Amy (who was indeed dressed in a nightie). ‘The TARDIS has a pretty extensive wardrobe,’ she assured her. ‘I’m sure we can find you something.’

Amy nodded her thanks, still staring around the room.

The Doctor clapped them both on the shoulders. ‘Right, so now we pick up your boyfriend. So, where is he?’ He moved up to the console, ready to put in the coordinates.

A flicker of something that Rose could only describe as fear passed over Amy’s face before she schooled her features. ‘You are so sure that I'm coming,’ she said, walking up to stand by the console.

‘Yeah, I am,’ said the Doctor like he was never more sure of anything.

This caught Amy off guard. ‘Why?’ she asked.

‘Cause you're the Scottish girl in the English village, and I know how that feels.’

Amy didn’t seem to believe him. ‘Oh, do you?’

‘All these years living here, most of your life, and you've still got that accent,’ continued the Doctor. ‘Yeah, you're coming.’

Amy gave up on her teasing and conceded to the Doctor’s point. ‘Can you get me back for tomorrow morning?’ she asked.

‘It's a time machine. I can get you back five minutes ago.’

Rose raised her eyebrow. The Doctor had obviously forgotten that the last time had promised Amy something like that, he had missed the mark by twelve years. Judging by the look on Amy’s face, she was thinking the exact same thing.

‘This time he was only off by two years,’ she told Rose. ‘It’s 2010 now.’

Rose rolled her eyes again and Amy’s lips twitched up into a smile.

‘Yeah, well new body, new TARDIS, bound to take some getting used to,’ said the Doctor, defensively, before changing the subject. ‘So, what’s tomorrow?'

Amy’s smile lessened somewhat. ‘Nothing. Nothing,’ she said, evasively. ‘Just you know, stuff.’

The Doctor and Rose looked at her curiously but let it slide. ‘All right, then. Back in time for stuff,’ said the Doctor, fiddling with some of the TARDIS controls.

That reminded Rose, Amy still hadn’t answered the Doctor’s earlier question.

‘So, where’s Rory?’ she asked Amy.

Another flicker of fear passed across Amy’s face before she turned evasive again. ‘Oh, he’s busy tonight. On a boy’s night out. We can get him later.’

Rose studied Amy for a moment before finally agreeing. Something must have happened between Amy and Rory over the last two years – something that Amy clearly didn’t want them to know about. Perhaps they had broken up?

That would be a shame, thought Rose. She had liked Rory.

‘Why me?’ asked Amy and Rose had to think for a moment before she realised that Amy was asking the Doctor why they were asking her to join the TARDIS.

‘Because you’re amazing,’ said the Doctor immediately. ‘And you deserve to see the universe.’

Rose gave him a grateful smile. She knew that he was still curious about the crack in Amy’s bedroom wall and how that may have affected her life, but she could tell that he wasn’t lying to Amy. He really did think she was amazing. And Rose couldn’t help but agree with him.

Amy gave a humbled smile and turned back to survey the room again. ‘This is..’ she said, not being able to finish her sentence.

‘You all right?’ asked Rose, walking up and putting a hand on her shoulder.

Amy nodded, shakily. ‘I'm fine. It's just… there's a whole world in here, just like the Doctor said. It's all true. I thought... Well, I started to think that maybe he was just like a madman with a box.’

The Doctor stopped his button pressing at that and his face became serious. ‘Amy Pond, there's something you'd better understand about me,’ he said as he walked up to her, ‘because it's important, and one day your life may depend on it… I am definitely a madman with a box.’

Both Amy and Rose smiled at that and the Doctor let out a laugh. With an excited flourish, he bounded around the console and grabbed a lever. It was the only control that Rose still recognised and she smiled as she braced for the Doctor to pull it down and take them away from 21st century England.

‘Goodbye Leadworth,’ he said and Amy’s smile grew even more. ‘Hello everything.’


	5. The Beast Below Part One

Amy looked around the room in wonder as the Doctor took them to their next adventure. She still couldn’t believe that it was actually real. All those years dreaming, she had had so many different visions of what the inside of the Doctor’s blue box would look like. None of them even came close. The real thing was just so… surreal. She had so many questions she wanted to ask and she wanted to ask them all at once.

So she did.

‘Woah, slow down,’ said Rose as Amy threw question after question at them, but then she paused and turned to the Doctor. ‘Actually, that last one was a good one. _Do_ we have to change the lightbulb on the top?’

‘Once a century or two,’ said the Doctor, waving off the question.

But Amy still had more. She tried holding them in but she just couldn’t. ‘Why doesn’t the air get out?’ she asked. ‘It is made of wood. You’ve got a wooden time machine. Do you feel stupid?’

Okay, so she hadn’t meant to ask that last one. Luckily, neither the Doctor nor Rose were offended, quite the opposite, they seemed rather amused.

The Doctor decided to answer her very first question about why the time machine looked like a Police Box. ‘It’s camouflage,’ he said. ‘It’s disguised as a Police telephone box from nineteen sixty-three. Every time the TARDIS materialises in a new location, within the first nanosecond of landing, it analyses its surroundings, calculates a twelve dimensional data map of everything within a thousand mile radius, and determines which outer shell would blend in best with the environment.’

Amy couldn’t help but smile at his enthusiasm.

‘And then, it disguises itself as a Police telephone box from nineteen sixty-three,’ he finished and both of their smiles faded. Amy glanced at Rose, hoping for an explanation.

‘It got stuck,’ she mouthed, unnoticed by the Doctor.

Amy thought it best to ask another question.

‘What about the windows? There are windows on the outside, where do they go? Is it a cry for help?’

‘What?’ asked the Doctor, obviously referring to the last question.

‘The bowtie.’

The Doctor looked at Rose and then back at Amy. ‘Bowties are cool,’ he said with not a single bit of sarcasm.

‘And you’re an alien,’ said Amy. This one wasn’t a question. She turned to Rose but Rose quickly shook her head.

‘I’m from Earth,’ she said. ‘London.’

Amy wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed.

She still had a few more questions but she held them back. ‘Okay,’ I think I’m done now,’ she said with a bit of a laugh.

The Doctor laughed too. ‘Amy Pond, you’ve barely started.’ He ran away from the controls and to the doors. ‘Because you know what I keep in here?’

‘What?’ asked Amy, wondering if maybe the time machine moved its doors around and now the doors that previously led outside would reveal some other magical room.

‘Absolutely everything,’ said the Doctor and he opened the doors.

There was no magical room on the other side - the doors still led to the outside – but what Amy saw so much better. They were in space. Millions of stars sparkled in the sky around them, as far as the eye could see. Something which may have been a nebula shone brightly to the right. Amy could only stare in wonder at the sight. It was so beautiful!

‘Amazing isn’t it?’ said Rose, walking up to stand behind her. Amy just nodded, still unable to speak.

Eventually, she found her voice again. ‘We’re in space,' she said, turning to face the Doctor and Rose.

‘Yes we are,’ said the Doctor.

But they couldn’t be.

‘No, it’s like, it’s like special effects,’ said Amy, trying to come up with a sensible explanation. ‘It’s not real.’

The Doctor had a twinkle in his eye that both worried and excited her. ‘Get out,’ he said.

Now it only worried her.

‘What?’

‘No, seriously. Get out.’ And with that, he grabbed her shoulders and spun her around. A second later she was being pushed out the door. She let out a scream as she started to float away from the ship but then she felt something grab her foot. It was the Doctor. He was grinning and laughing like it was the best joke in the world. Rose didn’t look like she agreed about that but soon her face settled into a smile too.

‘You alright up there?’ she called to Amy.

‘Yeah, think so,’ Amy shouted back. And then she took in the scene around her. It was real. She was really in space. She let out a loud laugh and she was pretty sure the Doctor and Rose were laughing too.

After a little bit, the Doctor pulled her back into the TARDIS. ‘Now do you believe me?’ he asked. She did.

‘Okay, your box is a spaceship,' she said through the last of her laughter. 'It's really, really a spaceship. We are in space!’ She paused, having just realised something. ‘What are we breathing?’

‘The TARDIS generates oxygen inside the ship,’ explained Rose. ‘The Doctor’s just widened the range a bit.’

Amy nodded her understanding. She turned back to the Doctor but she found nothing but empty space where his head had been a moment ago. ‘Now that's interesting,’ she heard him say and she looked down to see that he was crouching down at the edge of the doorway, looking at something below them. Amy and Rose crouched down beside him.

‘Is that a spaceship?’ asked Rose. ‘It’s huge!’

The Doctor nodded. ‘Twenty ninth century. Solar flares roast the earth, and the entire human race packs its bags and moves out till the weather improves. Whole nations.’ He got up and ran back to the TARDIS controls, still rambling off his explanation. Amy went to get up to follow him but stumbled and fell backwards towards the open the doors. Luckily Rose was there to catch her.

‘Thanks,’ said Amy, once she was safely inside the TARDIS with the doors firmly closed.

‘No problem,’ said Rose with a smile. ‘Trust me, you don’t want to do a spacewalk on your first trip. You gotta work your way up to that.’

The Doctor was still talking, having not even noticed the incident. ‘This is the United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland,’ he said, finally looking up at them. The excitement in his eyes was contagious and Amy’s smile grew even wider. ‘All of it, bolted together and floating in the sky. Starship UK. It's Britain, but metal.’ He pointed towards the TARDIS doors, indicating what was outside them. ‘That's not just a ship, that's an idea. That's a whole country, living and laughing and… shopping. Searching the stars for a new home.’

‘Can we go out and see?’ asked Amy.

‘Course we can,’ said the Doctor. ‘But first, there's a thing.’

Amy frowned. ‘A thing?’

‘An important thing. In fact, Thing One. We are observers only. That's the one rule I've always stuck to in all my travels. I never get involved in the affairs of other peoples or planets.’

Rose let out a snort but tried to cover it up with a cough. The Doctor gave her a pointed look. ‘Sorry,’ she said but Amy could tell that she was still trying not to laugh.

The Doctor’s lips twitched, like he was fighting a smile, and he quickly turned to face the TV screen that was above the main ship controls. ‘Oh, that's interesting,’ he said. Amy moved over to see what he was looking at. It was an image of a little girl sitting against a wall. The TARDIS must have been inside the spaceship now and the screen was showing what was outside.

Amy stared at the girl on the screen. She was crying.

‘So we're like a wildlife documentary, yeah?’ she asked the Doctor and Rose. ‘Because if they see a wounded little cub or something, they can't just save it, they've got to keep filming and let it die.’ She paused, questioning whether this life was what she wanted after all. ‘It's got to be hard. I don't think I could do that. Don't you find that hard, being all, like, detached and cold?’

No one answered her and, a second later, Amy discovered why. The Doctor and Rose were no longer in the TARDIS, they were outside, talking to the little girl. Amy could see them on the screen. She couldn’t hear what they were saying but whatever it was, the girl wasn’t interested because she soon ran off. The Doctor and Rose watched her go, each with identical looks of worry on their faces. The Doctor turned around and faced Amy. Well, technically, he was facing the TARDIS but when he waved his hands about like he was gesturing for someone to follow him, Amy knew that she was the intended recipient. She let herself smile at him for a few seconds before she ran out of the TARDIS and into the busy “streets” of Starship UK.

It looked like they had landed in some sort of market.

‘Welcome to London Market. You are being monitored,’ said a voice over the PA system, confirming Amy’s deductions.

‘I'm in the future,’ she said, looking around as she walked over to the Doctor and Rose. ‘Like hundreds of years in the future.’ She paused as she reached them. ‘I've been dead for centuries.’

‘Oh, lovely. You're a cheery one,’ said the Doctor, sarcastilly. Then he grabbed her by the shoulder and started guiding her further into the market. Rose moved over to walk the other side of her.

‘Never mind dead, look at this place. Isn't it wrong?’ said the Doctor.

‘What's wrong?’ asked Amy, slightly worried now.

‘Come on, use your eyes,’ said the Doctor. ‘Notice everything. What's wrong with this picture?’

Amy looked to Rose for help but Rose just shook her head and smiled reassuringly. They were obviously expecting Amy to work it out for herself. Maybe this was some sort of rite of passage thing for travelling in the TARDIS.

Amy looked around, determined to solve the puzzle. ‘Is it the bicycles?’ she asked, pointing to a sort of carriage that was being pulled along by a man on a bike. ‘Bit unusual on a spaceship, bicycles.’

‘Says the girl in the nightie.’

Amy’s smile fell. ‘Oh my God, I'm in my nightie.’

‘Don’t worry about it,’ said Rose. ‘The Doctor never changes his clothes no matter where we go. 19th century and he would still be wearing a leather jacket.’

‘There was nothing wrong with that jacket,’ said the Doctor. ‘Now, come on, look around you. Actually look.’

Amy did look but she still couldn’t see anything unusual. Well, that wasn’t true. _Everything_ was unusual to her. But it all looked like she would expect a market on a spaceship to look like. Not that she had ever thought much about the subject, mind.

Amy shook her head, giving up.

‘Life on a giant starship,’ said the Doctor. ‘Back to basics. Bicycles,’ (so she was onto something with the bicycles. Ha!), ‘washing lines, wind-up street lamps. But look closer. Secrets and shadows, lives led in fear. Society bent out of shape, on the brink of collapse. A police state. Excuse me.’ He suddenly stopped walking and turned pick up a glass of water from a nearby table, looking at it curiously.

‘What are you doing?’ asked the man whom the Doctor had just stolen the drink from.

The Doctor ignored him and placed the glass on the floor. After a few second of just staring at it, he raised his head and faced the people at the table. ‘Sorry,’ he said, putting the glass of water back on the table. ‘Checking all the water in this area. There's an escaped fish.’ He turned back to Amy and Rose. ‘Where was I?’

‘Why did you just do that with the water?’ asked Amy.

‘Don't know. I think a lot. It's hard to keep track. Now, police state. Do you see it yet?’

‘Where?’ asked Amy, looking around.

The Doctor pointed to something ahead of them. ‘There.’

It was the little girl from before. She was now sitting on a bench, still alone, and still crying.

The Doctor and Rose immediately walked closer to the girl. Amy was not far behind them. None of them noticed the cloaked figure watching them.

\----

The three of them sat down on a bench, not far from the one the girl was sitting on. The last time that the Doctor and Rose had tried to confront the girl, she had told them to leave her alone and then had run off. Rose suspected that, if they got too close, they would get the same reaction.

‘One little girl crying. So?’ asked Amy.

Rose looked at her, shocked at her words, but when she saw her face, she could tell that Amy had not intended it to sound so heartless. She was just confused as to the significance of the crying child; she wasn’t uncaring.

‘Crying silently,’ the Doctor corrected her. ‘I mean, children cry because they want attention, because they're hurt or afraid. But when they cry silently, it's because they just can't stop. Any parent knows that.’

‘Are you a parent?’ asked Amy.

There was an awkward few seconds where no one said anything. Rose knew that the Doctor had been a parent – and even a grandparent – but he didn’t like to talk about it much, not even to Rose. She suspected was too painful for him.

‘The point is that there are heaps of parents walking past her,’ said Rose, thinking it best to get back on track. ‘They can all see her crying but not one of them has stopped to ask her why. So, they most already know why. And they probably can’t do anything to help so they don’t even try. They don’t even talk about it. Or maybe they’re just afraid to?’

The Doctor nodded. ‘They’re afraid. And whatever they're afraid of, it's nowhere to be seen, which means it's everywhere. Police state.’

The little girl got up and entered a nearby lift.

‘Where’s she going?’ asked Amy.

‘Deck two oh seven. Apple Sesame block, dwelling 54A,’ said the Doctor and Rose fought back a smile. ‘You're looking for Mandy Tanner. Oh, er, this fell out of her pocket when I accidentally bumped into her.’ He handed a child’s wallet to Amy. ‘Took me four goes. Ask her about those things. The smiling fellows in the booths. They're everywhere.’

‘They’re creepy,’ added Rose, looking over at the nearest one. It reminded her a bit of those clown head games at carnivals – the ones where you have to stick the little plastic ball into the clowns mouth and it rolls down into the booth below and lands in a numbered column – except that the mouths on these things were set in a smile that was meant to seem friendly.

‘But they're just things,’ said Amy, looking at the booth.

‘Creepy things,’ said Rose.

‘Very clean things,’ said the Doctor. ‘Everything else here is all battered and filthy. Look at this place. But no one's laid a finger on those booths. Not a footprint within two feet of them. Look.’ He turned to face Amy. ‘Ask Mandy, why are people scared of the things in the booths?’

Amy nodded before she realised what the Doctor had just said. ‘No, hang on. What do I do? I don't know what I'm doing here and I'm not even dressed.’

‘It's this or Leadworth. What do you think? Let's see. What will Amy Pond choose?’ There were a few seconds while Amy glared at him before she admitted defeat. ‘Ha ha, gotcha,’ said the Doctor with a grin. ‘Meet us back here in half an hour.’

‘What are you two going to do?’

‘What we always do,’ said the Doctor, getting up off the bench. ‘Stay out of trouble.’

‘Badly,’ added Rose as she followed the Doctor towards the market’s exit.

‘So is this how it works, is it?’ Amy called out to them. ‘You never interfere in the affairs of other peoples or planets… unless there's children crying?’

Rose and the Doctor turned and smiled at her.

‘Exactly.’

\----

The Doctor and Rose walked through the corridors that most certainly were not for public use. They were more like maintenance tunnels.

‘So, which way to the engine room?’ asked Rose.

The Doctor stopped suddenly and turned to face her. ‘How do you know we’re going to the engine room?’ he asked.

‘Same way you do.’ The Doctor gave her an impressed smile. ‘Oi! Don’t look so surprised. I’ve been on enough spaceships to know that there should be at least some vibrations. Not even Platform One was this steady.’

‘Not surprised,’ said the Doctor. ‘Always known you were brilliant. Engine room is this way.’

He took her hand as they started walking again and Rose was reminded of the other thing she wanted to talk to him about now that they were alone. ‘Did you notice Amy’s face when we asked her about Rory?’ she asked him.

The Doctor was a bit distracted, looking for the entrance for the engine room. ‘Hmm? Oh, not really but she was very evasive, wasn’t she?’

‘I think they may have broken up.’

‘Well, a lot can happen in two years, I suppose. Ha! There you are.’ He had just found a ladder that led down into the engine room. He let go of Rose’s hand so he could grab hold of the railing instead.

‘I don’t think it was long ago, though,’ said Rose, watching the Doctor start to climb down the ladder. ‘I think it’s still recent and I was thinking… maybe we should go easy on the PDA for a while.’

The Doctor paused and looked up at her, confused. ‘PDA?’ he asked.

‘Public Displays of Affection.’

‘Oh. Is that why you wouldn’t take my hand until Amy had gone to follow Mandy.’ He began climbing down the ladder again and Rose followed.

‘I just don’t want to make her feel like the third wheel or anything. I know what it’s like when you’ve just broken up with someone and suddenly, all around you, there’s nothing but happy couples.’

The Doctor was silent for a couple of moments. ‘So you want us to pretend not be a happy couple?’ he finally asked. There was a thud as his shoes hit the engine room floor below.

‘No, that’s not what I meant,’ said Rose, wishing she could look him in the eyes (but she was still a few feet from the bottom of the ladder and she didn’t fancy jumping). ‘I just don’t want to rub it her face in it, that’s all.’

She reached the bottom of the ladder and she felt the Doctor grab her waist to help her the rest of the way down. Once she had two feet on the ground, he released her, but only enough for her to be able to turn in his arms.

‘So no… PDA around Amy?’ he asked.

‘I just thought it would be a good idea,’ said Rose, no longer sure if she should have said anything.

But then the Doctor’s expression shifted, becoming teasing. ‘So, I guess I should make the most of the alone time,’ he said, and a second later, his lips were on hers. His hands that were on her waist pulled her closer to him and the kiss turned into a proper snog.

Rose gave in to the kiss for a few moments before finally pulling away. ‘Come on. Enough of that,’ she told him, swatting him playfully on the chest. ‘We’ve got work to do. Impossibly still engines, remember?’

The Doctor pouted but conceded to her point. He let go of her waist and took her hand but it wasn’t long before he was letting it go again so he could inspect the contents of the engine room. He put his ear to the wall beside him, which Rose assumed concealed the main bulk of the engines. ‘Can't be,’ he whispered.

While the Doctor scanned the wall with his sonic screwdriver, Rose walked further into the room and noticed something that was definitely out of place. In the middle of the floor was a single glass of water.

‘Doctor…’ she started but then she noticed that they were not alone.

‘The impossible truth in a glass of water,’ said a masked woman in a red robe. Her voice was nothing more than a husky whisper. ‘Not many people see it. But you do, don't you, Doctor?’

The Doctor walked up and stood beside Rose. ‘You know me?’ he asked the mystery woman.

‘Keep your voice down,’ she hissed. ‘They're everywhere. Tell me what you see in the glass.’

‘Who says I see anything?’ said the Doctor, on the defensive. Rose didn’t blame him. The woman didn’t seem to wish them harm but she also didn’t seem very trustworthy either, hiding behind a mask. A very beautiful mask, mind, but still a mask just the same.

‘Don't waste time,’ said the woman. ‘At the marketplace, you placed a glass of water on the floor, looked at it, then came straight here to the engine room. Why?’

The Doctor had obviously decided to humour the woman. ‘No engine vibration on deck,’ he said. ‘Ship this size, engine this big, you'd feel it. The water would move. So, I thought I'd take a look.’ He moved over to the connections on the wall. ‘It doesn’t make sense! These power couplings, they're not connected. Look.’ He opened a box on the wall to show that the cables were in fact disconnected. ‘Look, they're dummies, see? And behind this wall, nothing.’ He tapped the wall he had been inspecting before. ‘It's hollow. If I didn't know better, I'd say there was-’

‘No engine at all,’ the woman said with him.

‘But there has to be,’ said Rose. ‘This ship is moving though space. We saw it.’

‘The impossible truth, Miss Tyler,’ said the woman. So she knew who Rose was too. ‘We're travelling among the stars in a spaceship that could never fly.’

‘How?’

‘I don't know. There's a darkness at the heart of this nation. It threatens every one of us. Help us, Doctor. You're our only hope. Your friend is safe. This will take you to her. Now go, quickly!’

She handed the Doctor a device that looked like it was probably used for tracking purposes and then turned to leave.

‘But who are ya?’ Rose called after her.

‘And how do we find you again?’ added the Doctor.

The woman turned to face then once more. ‘I am Liz Ten, and I will find you.’

And with that, she was gone.

\----

Amy glanced around the unfamiliar room and then to her hand that was just lifting off a big button that had the word “FORGET” on it in big bold letters. But what had she forgotten? And why had she seemingly willingly pressed the button to do so? There was no one else in the small room she was in. Just her and one of those smiling statues. 

Rose was right, they were creepy.

Amy desperately tried to go through the last few hours in her mind. She remembered the Doctor coming back for her in the middle of the night. She remembered stepping into the TARDIS and experiencing the wonder of what was inside. She remembered floating in space and then seeing Starship UK. Then they had seen Mandy crying and Amy had followed her. Then there was this big thing in the middle of one of the “roads”. Mandy had said it was just a hole but when Amy had gone for a closer look (ignoring the Keep Out signs), she saw that something big and alive was poking through the floor. Then the police (or guards or whatever) had caught her and knocked her out.

And that was it. That was all she had.

So why was she crying?

Amy wiped the tears away from her eyes and looked up at the computer screen that was telling her that there was a message waiting for her. She pressed play and then almost took a step back as she saw herself appear on the screen. The message was from her! Her from probably only a few minutes ago.

‘This isn't a trick,’ past-her said. There was real fear and urgency in her voice. ‘This is for real. You've got to find the Doctor and get him back to the TARDIS. Don't let him investigate. Stop him. Do whatever you have to, just please, please get the Doctor off this ship!’

The door opened and Amy let out a sigh of relief when she saw that Mandy was outside. Whoever had taken them, hadn’t hurt her.

Then the Doctor and Rose appeared and she wasn’t sure to be relieved or not. The message was still playing, repeating itself, so she quickly turned it off.

‘Amy?’ asked the Doctor, staring at the now blank screen. But Amy knew that he had seen enough of the message to become suspicious. ‘What happened?’

He walked further into the room and jumped up onto the chair. A second later he had a long cylindrical device in his hand and was pointing it at the device that was hanging from the ceiling.

‘Yeah, your basic memory wipe job,’ he said as he got down off the chair. ‘Must have erased about twenty minutes.’

‘But why would I choose to forget?’ asked Amy.

It was Mandy who answered. ‘Because everyone does. Everyone chooses the Forget button.’

‘Did you?’ the Doctor asked her.

‘I'm not eligible to vote yet,' said Mandy. 'I'm twelve. Any time after you're sixteen, you're allowed to the see the film and make your choice. And then once every five years.’

‘Voting for what?’ asked Rose.

Mandy shrugged.

‘Whatever it is, once every five years, everyone chooses to forget it,’ said the Doctor. ‘Democracy in action.’

‘How do you not know about this?’ asked Mandy ‘Are you two Scottish too?’

‘Oh, I'm way worse than Scottish,’ said the Doctor and Amy bit back a smirk despite the fact that she was still terrified of what she had chosen to forget. What could be so bad that she was ready to get the Doctor as far away from it as she could?

‘I can't even see the movie,’ continued the Doctor. ‘Won't play for me.’ He turned to Rose. ‘You try.’

Rose moved over to stand in front of the screens but it didn’t play for her either.

‘It played for me,’ said Amy.

‘The difference being the computer doesn't accept me or Rose as human,’ said the Doctor.

Now Amy was really confused. ‘You’re not human?’ she asked Rose. 'I thought you said you were from London?'

‘It’s complicated,’ said Rose. ‘I can explain later if you want, back on the TARDIS.’

Amy nodded but had one more question. ‘Are you the same as him?’ she asked, nodding at the Doctor.

The Doctor shook his head, answering for Rose. ‘No, I’m a Time Lord.’

‘You look human.’

‘No, you look Time Lord. We came first.’

‘So there are other Time Lords, yeah?’

The Doctor smile dropped and he looked up at her. There was a sadness in his eyes that she hadn’t seen before. ‘No,’ he said. ‘There were, but there aren't... Just me now.’ He looked like he was trying to get the words out but couldn’t. Rose must have known what he was trying to say though because she walked up to him and patted his shoulder comfortingly.

‘Long story,’ he finally continued. ‘There was a bad day. Bad stuff happened. And you know what? I'd love to forget it all, every last bit of it, but I don't. Not ever.’ His expression switched from sad to determined. ‘Because this is what I do, every time, every day, every second. This. Hold tight. We're bringing down the government.’ He raised his hand and then slammed it down on the button next to the Forget button. This one said “Protest”.

Suddenly the door to the room slammed closed, shutting Mandy out and the others in. The smiling statue rotated and now it’s face was set in a vicious scowl. The floor started to open and Amy soon realised that she was about to take a long fall whether she wanted to or not.

She glanced at the Doctor and was not surprised to see his usual gleeful grin.

‘Say wheee!’ he said as the floor continued to disappear form under their feet.

Rose laughed.

Amy screamed.


	6. The Beast Below Part Two

Rose laughed as she let the Doctor help her to her feet. But her smile soon turned into a grimace when she realised what they had landed in. She wasn’t quite sure what it was but it was wet and slimy and had chunks of things that Rose thought best not dwell on.

‘Where are we?’ asked Amy. She wore a similar expression to Rose.

‘Looks a bit like a cave,’ said Rose, looking around. The cavern was dimly lit but she could still see the walls on either side of them.

‘Six hundred feet down,’ said the Doctor, ‘twenty miles laterally, puts us at the heart of the ship. I'd say Lancashire.’

‘It's a rubbish dump,’ said Amy, ‘and it's minging!’ She picked up one of those chunks of waste that Rose was trying not to focus on. She could already feel that her socks were soaked through and her shoes were full of what she hoped was just water.

‘Yes, but only food refuse,’ said the Doctor, scanning the water and its contents. ‘Organic, coming through feeder tubes from all over the ship.’

‘The floor's all squidgy, like a water bed,’ said Amy.

Rose bounced on the balls of her feet and grimaced when something unpleasant slipped into the back of her shoe. And then she realised what the Doctor had just said. ‘Feeding tubes?’ she asked, all mirth from before long gone. ‘Feeding what?’

She had a feeling she knew the answer.

Sure enough, a second later, an animalistic growl came from somewhere behind them. All three of them froze.

‘Er, Amy… I don’t think it's a floor,’ said the Doctor. ‘It's a...’ He tailed off, looking very anxious, like he wasn’t sure he should say what the floor actually was.

‘It's a what?’ pressed Amy.

The Doctor took her hands in his. ‘The next word is kind of a scary word. You probably want to take a moment, get yourself in a calm place. Go omm.’

‘Omm,’ said Amy, sounding more confused than calm. Rose closed her eyes, hoping that the Doctor was not about to say what she thought he was going to say.

‘It's a tongue.’

Damn.

Rose opened her eyes just as Amy started shouting at the Doctor. ‘We're in a mouth!’

‘The question is,’ said Rose, ‘how do we get out of the mouth? _Without_ going through the stomach.’

The Doctor snapped into action mode, scanning the inside of the mouth with his sonic screwdriver. ‘Okay, it's being fed through surgically implanted feeder tubes,' he said, 'so the normal entrance…’ the light from the screwdriver illuminated a set of giant teeth that were firmly clasped shut, ‘is closed for business.’

‘We could try, though,’ said Amy, her anger replaced by determination. She took a couple of steps forward but the Doctor quickly reached out to stop her. Rose and Amy looked at him quizzically for a moment but then the floor - or more accurately, the tongue - began to move under their feet.

‘Too late,’ said the Doctor. ‘It's started.’

‘What’s started?’ asked Rose, eyeing the “floor” nervously as she tried to keep her balance. The whole mouth was moving now.

‘Swallow reflex.’

Oh, that wasn’t good.

‘Can we stop it?’ asked Rose, desperately trying to think of some way of not getting eaten. She came up with nothing. The Doctor, however, must have had an idea because he was once again pointing the sonic screwdriver around the mouth.

‘What are you doing?’ Amy asked him.

‘I'm vibrating the chemo-receptors.’

‘Chemo-what?’

‘The eject button.’

‘How does a mouth have an eject button?’

‘Think about it!’

Rose did think about. It took her a moment but she came to realise just how the Doctor was going to get them out. And it was not going to be pleasant.

\----

Rose coughed as she got up and tried not to focus too much on the fact that she was covered in the vomit of whatever beast owned the mouth they had just been spewed out of.

‘You all right?’ the Doctor asked her as he bent down to scan Amy with the screwdriver. She was still unconscious but it looked like she was just beginning to stir.

‘Apart from the smell, yeah,’ said Rose, rolling her shoulders to test the soreness of her muscles. There didn’t seem to be any pain so she figured she would be fine.

Amy coughed as she woke up and Rose went over to help her while the Doctor moved to inspect the door of the small room they were in.

‘You all right there?’ Rose asked Amy.

Amy nodded but her face showed the disgust and discomfort of the situation.

‘There's nothing broken, there's no sign of concussion,’ said the Doctor, having already scanned her with the sonic before she had woken, ‘and yes, you are covered in sick.’

The disgust on Amy’s face grew. ‘Where are we?’ she asked.

‘Overspill pipe, at a guess.’

‘Oh, God, it stinks.’

‘Yeah, I don’t think that’s just the pipe,’ said Rose, looking down at her own drenched clothes. They were going right in the bin once she got back to the TARDIS. Or maybe in the incinerator. She got up to join the Doctor at the door. ‘Any luck?’ she asked.

The Doctor shook his head. ‘Deadlock sealed. One door, one door switch, one condition. We forget everything we saw. Look familiar?’ He pointed to the button that would open the door. It said “Forget” on it, just like the one in the voting booth. ‘That's the carrot. Oh, and here's the stick.’ Rose followed his gaze and saw that there were two booths on the other side of the room containing those smiling statue things. The Doctor stepped towards them. ‘There's a creature living in the heart of this ship. What's it doing there?’

The statues didn’t answer, instead their heads rotated. The faces on the other side were frowning.

‘No, that's not going to work on me,’ said the Doctor, ‘so come on. Big old beast below decks, and everyone who protests gets shoved down its throat. That how it works?’

The statues rotated again, showing yet another face. This face was definitely not a friendly one. It was menacing.

‘Oh, stop it,’ said the Doctor. ‘I'm not leaving and I'm not forgetting, and what are you fellows going to do about it? Stick out your tongues, huh?’

The two booths opened and the statues (that turned out not be statues at all) stepped out.

That was not a promising development.

Thankfully, at that moment, the door to the overspill pipe opened and a familiar woman in a red robe walked through. She pointed a gun at the statues and fired. The statues fell to the ground.

‘Look who it is,’ said the Doctor. ‘You look a lot better without your mask.’

‘And thanks for the whole, you know, saving us thing,’ added Rose.

The woman smiled at her and then moved over to Amy. ‘You must be Amy,’ she said, holding out her hand. Now that she was no longer whispering through a mask, her English accent was unmistakable. ‘Liz. Liz Ten.’

‘Hi,’ said Amy, shaking Liz’s outstretched hand.

Liz let go of her hand and looked down at her own. ‘Ugh,’ she said, wiping it on her robe. ‘Lovely hair, Amy. Shame about the sick.’ She walked back to the door and Rose saw another familiar face. ‘You know Mandy, yeah? She's very brave.’

Rose smiled at Mandy, glad to see that she was okay.

‘How did you find us?’ asked the Doctor.

‘Stuck my gizmo on you’ said Liz, chucking him another one of those tracking devices, like the one that she had given them to find Amy. ‘Been listening in. Nice moves on the hurl escape. So, what's the big fella doing here?’

‘I take it you chose to forget too, then?’ said Rose.

Liz shook her head. ‘No. Never forgot, never voted, not technically a British subject.’

‘Then who and what are you, and how do you know me?’ asked the Doctor, his tone curious but firm.

Liz just smiled. ‘You're a bit hard to miss, love. Mysterious stranger, M O consistent with higher alien intelligence… hair of an idiot.’ Rose bit back a laugh as the Doctor put a hand through his hair self-consciously. She patted him on the shoulder, letting him know that there was no need to worry. ‘I've been brought up on the stories,’ continued Liz. ‘My whole family was.’

‘Your family?’

But Liz’s attention was drawn to the statues on the ground that were starting to twitch. ‘They're repairing,’ she said. ‘Doesn't take them long. Let's move.’

So move they did. And as they moved, Liz elaborated on how her family knew of the Doctor.

‘The Doctor,’ she said as they walked through service corridors of Starship UK. ‘Old drinking buddy of Henry Twelve. Tea and scones with Liz Two. Vicky was a bit on the fence about you and Rose, weren't she? Knighted and exiled you on the same day. And then there was the Virgin Queen. Talk about mixed feelings there.’

The smile that had appeared on Rose’s face at the memory of Queen Victoria disappeared the instant Liz mentioned Elizabeth the First. That particular trip had only been a week ago for her and the Doctor and, although she was trying to get past it, it was still a bit of a sore spot. She risked a glance at the Doctor and saw the familiar guilt in his eyes.

‘You’re Liz Ten,’ he said in quiet realisation.

Liz had been walking ahead of them and had not noticed the change in the Doctor and Rose’s mood. ‘Liz Ten, yeah. Elizabeth the Tenth. And DOWN!’

She turned around, a gun in each hand, and the Doctor, Rose, Amy and Mandy all dove to the ground. A second later, Liz fired her weapons and the scowling statues that had been advancing on them fell to the floor once more. Liz gave a victorious smile and then looked down to address the others who were still kneeling on the floor.

‘I'm the bloody Queen, mate. Basically, I rule.’

Rose decided then and there that she liked this queen.

At Liz’s instance, they all got back to their feet and quickly got moving again. Soon they came to a corridor that was a bit troubling. On one side, behind metal bars, were appendages that looked almost like tentacles... or possibly even scorpion tails. And they were moving, thrashing against their confines and making a terrible clanging noise.

‘I saw one of these up top,’ said Amy. ‘There was a hole in the road, like it had burst through like a root.’

‘Exactly like a root,’ said the Doctor, scanning the thing with the sonic. ‘It's all one creature, the same one we were inside, reaching out. It must be growing through the mechanisms of the entire ship.’

‘What, like an infestation?’ asked Liz before her expression turned dark. ‘Someone's helping it. Feeding it. Feeding my subjects to it.’ She glared at the tentacle things for a second before deciding they had better get moving. Mandy followed her but the Doctor hung back, staring at the tentacles with a much different expression than Liz had done. His expression was much more worried and… sad.

‘What’s wrong?’ asked Rose, putting a hand on his shoulder.

The Doctor just stared at the trapped tentacles. ‘We should never have come here,’ was all he said before he walked after Liz. Amy and Rose looked at each other worriedly before they too followed towards the nearest lift.

\----

The Doctor felt a bit better now that he had had a chance to clean himself up a bit. Not as much as he would have liked but he was still immensely grateful for Liz allowing he, Rose and Amy to use her bathroom. At least they didn’t smell quite so bad now.

He walked back into the Queen’s main room. ‘Why all the glasses?’ he asked, nodding at the glasses of water that were all over the floor.

‘To remind me every single day that my government is up to something,’ said Liz, ‘and it's my duty to find out what.’

The Doctor picked up Liz’s mask. ‘A queen going undercover to investigate her own kingdom?’

‘Secrets are being kept from me. I don't have a choice.’

‘Well, I like it,’ said Rose, giving Liz a proud smile.

Liz smiled back but her face fell and she narrowed her eyes in frustration. ‘Ten years I've been at this,’ she said. ‘My entire reign. And you lot have achieved more in one afternoon.’

‘Well it is a lot easier when you don’t have to hide behind a mask,’ said the Doctor, hoping to make her feel a bit better. It wasn’t her fault this was happening and she was at least trying to help. The Doctor suddenly realised that this must have been what he was like to deal with sometimes, always blaming himself for things beyond his control, but worse.

He pushed the thought aside to ponder on later and brought his attention back to the Queen (and her mask). ‘How old were you when you came to the throne?’ he asked.

‘Forty. Why?’

‘What, you're fifty now?’ said Amy, looking at Liz with a mixture of disbelief and awe. ‘No way.’

‘They slowed my body clock,’ explained Liz. ‘Keeps me looking like the stamps.’

The Doctor heard Rose supress a snort of laughter and grinned before returning his attention back to Liz’s mask. ‘And you always wear this in public?’ he asked Liz.

‘Undercover is not easy when you're me. The autographs, the bunting.’

The Doctor studied the mask in his hand. ‘Air-balanced porcelain. Stays on by itself, because it's perfectly sculpted to your face.’

‘Yeah? So what?’

She didn’t realise the significance. A quick glance at Rose, Amy and Mandy showed that none of them did either. Liz thought she was fifty but the mask was much older than that. The Doctor thought back to the ominous forget button. Maybe the Queen had voted after all. But the question still remained; voted for what?

Liz was still looking at him, waiting for an answer.

‘Oh, Liz. So everything,’ he told her.

Before anyone could ask him to elaborate further, a squad people in black robes walked through the doors.

‘What are you doing?’ Liz asked them. ‘How dare you come in here?’

‘Ma'am, you have expressed interest in the interior workings of Starship UK,’ said one of the men. ‘You will come with us now.’

Liz walked up to him, her face a mask of annoyance and determination. ‘Why would I do that?’

There was metallic cranking noise as the man’s head turned a full one-eighty degrees on his neck. Now they were looking at a familiar scowling face.

‘How can they be Smilers?’ asked Amy (Liz had told them that that was what the smiling statues were called).

‘Half Smiler, half human,’ said the Doctor, half impressed, half disgusted.

Liz had lost a bit of her bravado when the Smiler had revealed itself but it was back in full force now. ‘Whatever you creatures are, I am still your queen,’ she told the half-Smilers, almost growling at them. ‘On whose authority is this done?’

‘The highest authority, Ma'am.’

‘I _am_ the highest authority.’

‘Yes, ma'am. You must go now, Ma'am.’

‘Where?’

‘The Tower, Ma'am.’

\----

The half-Smilers led them to Starship UK’s equivalent of the Tower of London. More specifically, the dungeon of the Tower of London. Or perhaps, "torture chamber" might have been a more accurate term. There were holes in the floor with metal grating covering them, each one making a terrible clanging noise as more of the creature’s tentacles thrashed against them from below. And in the middle of the room was a great big contraption fixed to the ceiling. Every few seconds, a bolt of electricity shot down from it, hitting something that was currently hidden from view. But the Doctor had a feeling he knew what it was. And he hoped to God that he was wrong.

An older looking man in a black robe walked up to them.

‘Hawthorne,’ said Liz, addressing the man. ‘So this is where you hid yourself away. I think you've got some explaining to do.’

Hawthorne didn’t get a chance to reply before Rose cut across him.

‘Why are there kids down here?’ she asked, a hint of outrage in her voice. ‘Surely whatever is happening down here has nothing to do with them.’

‘Protesters and citizens of limited value are fed to the beast,’ said Hawthorne and the Doctor saw the rage in Rose’s eyes grow. He understood that rage. He felt it too. ‘For some reason, it won't eat the children,’ continued Hawthorne as the line of children walked past them. There was little emotion in his eyes. ‘You're the first adults it's spared. You're very lucky.’

‘Yeah, look at us,’ scoffed the Doctor. ‘Torture chamber of the Tower of London. Lucky, lucky, lucky. Except it's not a torture chamber, is it? Well, except it is. Except it isn't. Depends on your angle.’ He leaned over the railing to look at what was being shocked by the bolts of electricity that were coming from the ceiling. He hadn’t been wrong. Down below them, was the brain of the creature that was below Starship UK - the reason why there had been nothing in the engine room that the Doctor and Rose had checked out earlier.

Because that room hadn’t actually been the engine room. This one was.

‘What's that?’ asked Liz, as she, Rose, Amy and Mandy joined him.

‘Well, like I say, it depends on the angle,’ said the Doctor, barely containing his anger. ‘It's either the exposed pain centre of big fella's brain, being tortured relentlessly.’

‘Or?’ asked Liz.

‘Or it's the gas pedal, the accelerator. Starship UK's go faster button.’

‘I don't understand.’

‘Don't you? Try to. Go on. The spaceship that could never fly. No vibration on deck. This creature, this poor, trapped, terrified creature. It's not infesting you, it's not invading, it's what you have instead of an engine.’ The Doctor’s control was slipping with every word and his rage was starting to seep into his voice. ‘And this place down here is where you hurt it, where you torture it, day after day, just to keep it moving.’ 

He took a breath to regain his composure. It didn’t work.

‘Tell you what,’ he said, running over and lifting the metal grating off of one of the holes in the floor. A tentacle rose up, towering over him. ‘Normally, it's above the range of human hearing. This is the sound none of you wanted to hear.’

He switched the settings on his sonic screwdriver and then pointed it at the tentacle. An agonising screaming sound filled the dungeon.

‘Stop it,’ said Liz and the Doctor did as she asked. He could tell by her expression that she had known nothing of this. At least, not since the last time she had been in this room.

Liz rounded on Hawthorne. ‘Who did this?’ she demanded.

‘We act on instructions from the highest authority,’ answered Hawthorne.

‘ _I_ am the highest authority,’ said Liz. ‘The creature will be released, now.’ No one did anything. ‘I said now! Is anyone listening to me?’

Her subjects remained unmoving and the Doctor decided it time that Liz Ten understood the full truth.

‘Liz. Your mask,’ he said, softly.

‘What about my mask?’

He handed it to her. ‘Look at it. It's old. At least two hundred years old, I'd say.’

‘Yeah? It's an antique. So?’

‘Yeah, an antique made by craftsmen over two hundred years ago and perfectly sculpted to your face. They slowed your body clock, all right, but you're not fifty. Nearer three hundred. And it's been a long old reign.’

Liz either didn’t believe him or didn’t want to. ‘Nah, it's ten years,’ she said. ‘I've been on this throne ten years.’

‘Ten years,’ the Doctor nodded. ‘The same ten years, over and over again, always leading you here.’ He led her over to a screen that he had noticed earlier. There were two buttons in front of it. One said FORGET and the other said ABDICATE.

Liz turned to Hawthorne. She looked so lost but the Doctor knew that that was because she was finally beginning to understand. He felt sorry for her in a way, but he still felt that rage just brimming beneath the surface. She had chosen to forget this. Every time she found herself here; she chose to ignore the truth of what she and her people had done.

‘What have you done?’ she asked Hawthorne.

‘Only what you have ordered. We work for you, Ma'am. The Winders, the Smilers, all of us.’

He flicked a switch and the screen in front of them flickered to life. A video of Liz – Liz from many many many years ago – began to play.

‘If you are watching this... If _I_ am watching this, then I have found my way to the Tower Of London. The creature you are looking at is called a Star Whale. Once, there were millions of them. They lived in the depths of space and, according to legend, guided the early space travellers through the asteroid belts. This one, as far as we are aware, is the last of its kind. And what we have done to it breaks my heart. The Earth was burning. Our sun had turned on us and every other nation had fled to the skies. Our children screamed as the skies grew hotter. And then it came, like a miracle. The last of the Star Whales.’

The Doctor felt a hand grip his as they listened to the Liz on screen describe how they trapped this beautiful creature and built Starship UK around it. He didn’t have to turn around to know it was Rose's hand. He squeezed it, needing the comfort. Because he knew what he had to do next. And it would be one of the worst things he had ever done.

The Liz on screen gave the present Liz a choice, forget or abdicate and free the Star Whale. But if she abdicated, then Starship UK and all it’s passengers would be left without an engine and the ship would break apart.

The video ended and they all stared at the screen for a few moments, each lost in thought.

‘I voted for this,’ said Amy, finally. ‘Why would I do that?’

‘Because you knew if we stayed here, I'd be faced with an impossible choice,’ said the Doctor. ‘Humanity or the alien. You took it upon yourself to save me from that. And that was wrong. You don't ever decide what I need to know.’

‘I don't even remember doing it.’

‘You did it. That's what counts.’

‘I'm… I'm sorry.’

‘Oh, I don't care. When I'm done here, you're going home.’

Deep down, the Doctor knew he was being unfair but at the moment, the anger and injustice of it all was all he could see. He let go of Rose's hand and walked over to the set of computers that controlled the electricity that was torturing the Star Whale.

‘Why? Because I made a mistake?’ Amy shouted after him. ‘One mistake? I don't even remember doing it. Doctor!’

‘Yeah, I know,’ said the Doctor, configuring the settings to prepare for what had to be done. What _he_ had to do. ‘You're only human.’

‘Doctor, what are you doing?’ asked Rose, tentatively.

‘One of the worst things I'll ever do,’ he replied, keeping his eyes fixed on the controls in front of him. He didn’t think he could bear to see her eyes as he told her what was about to happen. ‘I'm going to pass a massive electrical charge through the Star Whale's brain. Should knock out all its higher functions, leave it a vegetable. The ship will still fly, but the whale won't feel it.’

‘That'll be like killing it,’ said Amy.

The Doctor scrunched his eyes up as he fought the anger that was still threatening to burst from him. ‘Look, three options,’ he said, looking up at Amy. ‘One, I let the Star Whale continue in unendurable agony for hundreds more years. Two, I kill everyone on this ship. Three, I murder a beautiful, innocent creature as painlessly as I can… And then I find a new name, because I won't be the Doctor any more.’

‘There must be something we can do, some other way,’ said Liz and the Doctor snapped.

‘Nobody talk to me. Nobody HUMAN HAS ANYTHING TO SAY TO ME TODAY!’

‘Doctor!’

Rose’s shout was what finally caused him to look at her. And the shock on her face was what made him pause. That outburst had been directed at all of them... and he hadn’t shouted like that at Rose since before they had started their relationship. But, misdirected or not, the anger he felt was still there. He still had to kill this Star Whale – the last of its kind.

He took another one of those breaths that were supposed to help calm him down and then looked back down at the controls. ‘Rose, I’m sorry,’ he said, so softly that he was almost whispering, ‘but just leave me be. I have to do this.’

He risked a glance up at her and saw that the shock that had been in her eyes a moment ago was gone, replaced by sympathy and forgiveness. And those were two things that the Doctor didn’t deserve right now so he quickly looked away from her and refocused his attention on the controls in front of him. The controls that would make him a murderer.


	7. The Beast Below Part Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is very Doctor/Rose lite, I'm afraid. It focusses more on Amy and her relationship with the two.

Rose sat with Amy and Mandy as they waited for the Doctor to finish working on the machine that would effectively kill the last Star Whale in existence. Rose had to fight back tears every time she thought about it. It was just so unfair. It was one of those horrible choices that no one should have to make but the universe seemed intent on making the Doctor make them. She knew how guilty he would feel for this. And he already carried too much guilt as it was.

And then there was, of course, the Star Whale itself. This magnificent creature that was all alone in the universe had been exploited and tortured for so many years and it didn't deserve that... but if they set it free, millions of innocent people would die.

Nothing about this situation was fair.

More children walked through the chamber. ‘Timmy!’ cried Mandy, jumping up and running over to one of them. ‘You made it. You're okay. It's me, Mandy.’

They were stopped right in front of the tentacle that the Doctor had freed earlier and for a minute, Rose thought that it was going to attack Mandy… but then it just simply tapped her on the shoulder. It was almost… playful.

‘It almost seems kind,’ said Rose.

Amy nodded, a peculiar expression on her face as she too watched Mandy and Timmy per the Star Whale.

Suddenly, she jumped up. ‘Doctor, stop,’ she said. ‘Whatever you're doing, stop it now!’ She ran over to Liz and grabbed her wrist. ‘Sorry, Your Majesty. Going to need a hand.’

She dragged the Queen to the voting buttons. The Doctor shouted at her to stop but Amy ignored him. She forced Liz’s hand down on the button that said ABDICATE. There were a tense couple of seconds as the machinery grinded to a halt, and then the Star Whale roared. The room started to shake and Rose was sure that the ship would break apart any moment.

But it didn’t.

‘We’re still alive,’ said Rose, as the shaking stopped and she got to her feet.

‘We've increased speed,’ said Hawthorne, reading one of the computer screens. Finally his voice showed sign of an emotion. Namely, surprise.

‘Yeah, well, you've stopped torturing the pilot. Got to help,’ said Amy as if it was obvious. And now that Rose thought about it, it really was.

‘It's still here, said Liz. ‘I don't understand.’

‘The Star Whale didn't come like a miracle all those years ago,’ explained Amy. ‘It volunteered. You didn't have to trap it or torture it. That was all just you. It came because it couldn't stand to watch your children cry. What if you were really old, and really kind and alone? Your whole race dead. No future. What couldn't you do then? If you were that old, and that kind,’ she turned to face the Doctor, ‘and the very last of your kind, you couldn't just stand there and watch children cry.’

Rose couldn’t help but be impressed. She had a feeling that Amy Pond was going to fit into their life just fine. More than that, Rose knew that the Doctor would be better for having her stay. But, judging by the look on his face, he still needed a bit of persuading.

\----

Amy watched the Doctor stare out of the huge windows. Outside, she could see a beautiful starry night but she was too anxious to fully appreciate it. After she had freed the Star Whale, she had thought that maybe she had redeemed herself after pressing that Forget button but instead of congratulating her on saving the last of the Star Whales, the Doctor had just walked out of the Tower of London without saying a word. After an encouraging nod from Rose, Amy had silently followed him and now here she was, too scared to even go and talk to him.

What if he hadn’t forgiven her? What if he was still going to take her home?

What if he left her behind like last time?

‘I said our goodbyes to Liz and Mandy,’ said a voice from beside Amy, making her startle. ‘Sorry,’ said Rose, ‘didn’t think I was that quiet.’

‘No, you’re okay,’ said Amy, a little embarrassed by her jumpiness. ‘Just had my mind on other things.’ She looked back to the Doctor and knew that Rose would know exactly what those “other things” were.

‘He’s already forgiven you,’ said Rose. ‘He just hasn’t realised it yet.’

Amy made a small disbelieving noise. ‘He was so angry. I mean, he had every right to be but… I don’t want him to send me home.’

‘He won’t,’ Rose assured her, putting a hand on her shoulder. ‘He’s just still reeling from what he had almost had to do – what you saved him from doing because you figured out the answer. You did good today. And the Doctor knows it.’ She held out something and Amy finally tore her gaze away from the Doctor and looked down to see what Rose was offering her. It was Liz’s mask. ‘Liz wanted the Doctor to have it. Why don’t you go give it to him. I’ll wait in the TARDIS.’

Rose didn’t give her a chance to argue. Once she was sure that Amy had the mask firmly in her grasp, she gave her shoulder a quick squeeze and then walked away, heading for the TARDIS.

Amy stared down at the mask for a moment and then back to the Doctor. She took a breath for resolve and walked up to stand beside him at the window. She held the mask out to him. ‘From Her Majesty,’ she told him. ‘No more secrets on Starship UK.’

‘Amy, you could have killed everyone on this ship,’ said the Doctor, barely even glancing at the mask.

Okay, straight to the chase. In a way, Amy was grateful.

‘You could have killed a Star Whale,’ she said, simply but not without sympathy.

‘And you saved it. I know, I know.’

A wave of relief washed over Amy at hearing those words. Rose was right, the Doctor had forgiven her. She fought down a smile and looked out the window at the stars. ‘Amazing though, don't you think?’ she said. ‘The Star Whale. All that pain and misery… and loneliness, and it just made it kind.’

‘But you couldn't have known how it would react,’ said the Doctor and Amy turned to face him.

‘You couldn't. But I've seen it before. Very old and very kind, and the very, very last. Sound a bit familiar?’

She stared at him knowingly for a few moments before she finally saw the acceptance in his eyes. She had known the Star Whale would have chosen to stay and help the humans because that’s exactly what the Doctor would have done. And he knew it too. The Doctor leaned forwards and wrapped his arms around her in a hug. A hug that she didn’t hesitate in reciprocating.

‘Hey,’ she said against his shoulder.

‘What?’

‘Gotcha.’

\----

‘So is this what we do?’ asked Amy as her and the Doctor walked back to the TARDIS. ‘Save the day and then move on to the next one.’

‘Pretty much,’ agreed the Doctor. ‘Don’t like to hang around. There always tends to be gifts of gratitude and parties thrown in my honour. It’s all very uncomfortable. No fuss, that’s me. But never mind that. Big day tomorrow.’

Amy froze. Surely he couldn’t know?

‘Sorry, what?’ she asked.

‘Well, it's always a big day tomorrow,’ he said, his enthusiasm unaffected. ‘We've got a time machine. I skip the little ones.’

Amy expected to feel relieved but she didn’t. Maybe she _should_ tell him just how important “tomorrow” really was.

By the time she had made her decision, the Doctor was almost to the TARDIS and she had to run a little to catch up. ‘You know what I said about getting back for tomorrow morning?’ she said. He paused and turned to look at her, waiting for her to clarify. ‘Have you ever run away from something because you were scared, or not ready, or just… just because you could?’

The Doctor’s expression became thoughtful. ‘Once, a long time ago.’

‘What happened?’

He gave her a small smile and raised his eyebrows. ‘Hello.’

Right, of course. He still was running.

Amy opened her mouth to tell him about why she was running, to tell him all about her upcoming wedding and promise of commitment, but before she could get the words out, the TARDIS doors opened and Rose stuck her head out.

‘Winston just called,’ she told the Doctor. ‘Wants us to come round. Sounded pretty urgent.’

Amy closed her mouth, deciding that she could tell the Doctor about the wedding later, that now was not the time. ‘Winston?’ she asked instead.

The Doctor turned to her and grinned that stupid grin of his that was way too endearing.

‘Amy Pond, how would you like to meet Winston Churchill?’


	8. Victory of the Daleks Part One

Before going to see Winston, the Doctor, Rose and Amy had decided it would be probably best to spend a couple of hours in the vortex freshening up. Rose had showed Amy to the wardrobe and then had headed straight to the shower. It had taken her almost a whole bottle of shampoo but she had finally gotten the last remnants of Star Whale vomit out of her hair. Now, feeling much cleaner in a fresh set of trousers and a clean shirt (the clothes she had been wearing went straight into the incinerator as promised), she sat on the jump seat while she waited for Amy to be ready for their next adventure.

‘I’m sorry,’ said the Doctor from the other side of the console, bringing Rose out of her thoughts of nothing in particular.

‘What for?’ she asked, not quite understanding the sudden apology. The Doctor didn’t look up from the controls. Even though he had a new body, Rose still recognised his “ashamed face.”

‘About shouting earlier,’ he clarified. ‘There was no call for it. I was just so… angry.’

Rose slowly got to her feet and walked around the console. She put her hand on his arm and he looked at it for a moment before finally meeting her gaze. ‘It’s okay, I understand,’ she said, honestly. ‘I was angry too. That poor creature…’ She tailed off as she thought of how many years the Star Whale had been tortured for. ‘It definitely wasn’t humanity’s finest moment.’

‘No,’ he agreed but he still looked a bit guilty. So Rose did what came naturally – what she would always do whenever he needed it - she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a hug. It was a bit of an awkward position, with him still facing the console and her hugging him from the side, trapping his arms in place, but it was enough for him to let go of the tension he had been holding. His shoulders relaxed and Rose felt him press a kiss to the top of her head.

Slowly, she released him and looked up to see that he was smiling now. It was a small smile, but a smile just the same. Now that his arms were free, he used them to pull her back in for a proper hug. ‘Thank you,’ he whispered into her hair.

Rose was about to ask what he was thanking her for when Amy’s voice echoed across the room.

‘That wardrobe is amazing!’

Rose reluctantly pulled away from the Doctor just as Amy entered the console room. ‘Find something you liked?’ she asked her.

Amy walked around the console to stand beside them. ‘Found heaps I liked. Nothing that really suited the 1940’s though, so I just went with this. It’s the sort of thing I usually wear. You think it’ll be alright?’

Rose looked over Amy’s outfit – a simple red top, a short skirt and a fashionable brown jacket. Rose shrugged. It was no worse than what she herself had worn when she had met Queen Victoria. ‘You’ll be fine,’ she told Amy.

The sound of the TARDIS materialising filled the room and the central column stopped. ‘We’re here,’ said the Doctor, much more cheerful than he had been a few minutes ago, and he led the way out of the TARDIS... Where they were immediately met with several guns pointed at them.

The Doctor didn’t seem worried, though. He didn't even seem surprised. He just smiled as the soldiers parted to reveal the man who had called them here in the first place.

‘Amy. Winston Churchill,’ said the Doctor, introducing his friend.

‘Doctor. Is it you?’ asked Winston, glancing quickly to Rose, as if seeking confirmation.

‘Oh, Winston, my old friend,’ said the Doctor. He moved forward to shake the Prime Minister’s hand but just before he took it, Winston held his own hand out flat in front of him, as if waiting for the Doctor to give him something.

The Doctor just laughed. ‘Ah, every time.’

‘What's he after?’ asked Amy.

‘The TARDIS key,’ answered Rose. He had done it the last time Rose had met him too. That had been in 1939, just after the war began.

‘Think of what I could achieve with your remarkable machine, Doctor,’ said Winston, lowering his hand. ‘The lives that could be saved.’

‘Ah, doesn't work like that, I’m afraid,’ said the Doctor, moving back to close the TARDIS door.

‘Must I take it by force?’

‘I'd like to see you try.’

Winston gave a chuckle and told his men to stand down. Rose felt a bit more comfortable now that there were no longer any guns pointed at her face. ‘Thanks,’ she said. Winston stepped forward and held his hand out to her.

‘And Miss Tyler, my good woman,’ he said as she took his hand. He leant down and kissed it. ‘I trust you’re keeping this one on the straight and narrow.’ He nodded his head towards the Doctor.

‘Well, I try,’ she said with a wink in the Doctor’s direction. He smiled at her and then turned back to Winston.

‘So, Winston, you rang?’

\----

It turned out that the Doctor had misjudged the landing (there was a shocker) and they had arrived a whole month after Winston had originally called them. He hadn’t mentioned what the call was about yet but Rose suspected it had something to do with whatever he was about to show them.

‘We stand at a crossroads,’ said Winston as they rode the lift up to the roof, ‘quite alone, with our backs to the wall. Invasion is expected daily. So I will grasp with both hands anything that will give us an advantage over the Nazi menace.’

‘Such as?’ asked the Doctor with a slightly worried glance to Rose and Amy.

The lift stopped and Winston smiled, a knowing twinkle in his eye. ‘Follow me.’

They exited the lift and walked out onto the roof where sandbags were piled high and random soldiers patrolled the area. There was also a man in a white lab coat, looking up to the sky through a pair of binoculars, no doubt searching for the Nazi planes that they had been told were approaching.

‘This is Professor Edwin Bracewell,’ Winston introduced the man. ‘Head of our Ironsides Project.’

Rose gave the scientist a wave in hello while the Doctor gave him the famous “victory salute”.

‘How do you do?’ said Bracewell with a smile and a wave and then went back to looking to the skies.

An explosion sounded from somewhere not far off, drawing Rose’s attention to the city that they could see from their spot on the roof. War-torn London was not a sight that Rose had not seen before but it still got to her every time.

At least this time she wasn’t seeing it while she was clinging to a rope from a barrage balloon.

Amy walked up to stand beside Rose, also looking out at the scene.

‘Oh, it's… it’s…’

She didn’t seem to be able to find the words. Rose could understand that.

‘History,’ said the Doctor, finishing Amy’s sentence (he never seemed to have a problem with words, after all).

‘Ready, Bracewell?’ asked Winston, bringing their attention back to whatever it was that they had been brought up here to see.

‘Aye aye, sir,’ said Bracewell before shouting to the soldiers that were presumably behind the sandbags. ‘On my order, fire!’

A horribly familiar sound filled the air as energy bolts shot up from the roof and shot the Nazi planes square on, blasting them out of the sky. The Doctor, Rose and Amy stared in shock at where the planes had been a moment ago.

‘Doctor, that sounded like…’ Rose started but trailed off. She could tell by the look on the Doctor’s face that she didn’t need to finish her sentence. He knew exactly what that had sounded like.

The Doctor spun to face Bracewell. ‘Show me,’ he demanded. ‘Show me. Show me what that was!’ He climbed up the small ladder to be on the same level as Bracewell. Rose followed him.

Bracewell seemed unfazed by the Doctor’s abrupt tone. He still had that same happy grin on his face as he told whoever (or whatever) it was that shot down the planes to come forward.

‘Our new secret weapon,’ announced Winston with pride and victory in his voice. Rose crossed her fingers, hoping that it wasn’t what she thought it was.

But no such luck. Rose and the Doctor took a step backwards as a Dalek rolled out from behind the sandbags. It was painted in a khaki colour, similar to that of the soldier's uniforms. But the strangest thing about this Dalek was that it had a small Union Flag logo on it, just below it’s eyestalk.

‘What do you think?’ asked Winston, obviously not seeing the Doctor and Rose’s reaction. ‘Quite something, eh?’

‘What are you doing here?’ the Doctor asked the Dalek, stepping towards it. Rose didn’t miss the way he shifted a bit to his left, effectively taking her out of the Dalek’s firing line.

‘I am your soldier,’ said the Dalek.

‘What?’ asked the Doctor and Rose together.

‘I am your soldier.’

‘Stop this. Stop now,’ said the Doctor, obviously losing his patience. Rose put a hand on his arm, whether it was to keep him calm or to hold him back, she wasn’t sure. ‘Now, you know who I am. You always know.’

‘Your identity is unknown.’

‘Perhaps I can clarify things here,’ said Bracewell, stepping forwards. ‘This is one of my Ironsides.’ He indicated towards the Dalek.

‘Ironsides?’ asked Rose before she realised the most important part of what Bracewell had said. ‘Hang on, what do mean _your_ Ironsides?’

‘I created them,’ said Bracewell proudly before turning to face the Dalek. ‘You will help the Allied cause in any way that you can,’ he told it.

‘Yes,’ replied the Dalek.

‘Until the Germans have been _utterly_ smashed.’

‘Yes.’

‘And what is your ultimate aim?’

‘TO WIN THE WAR!’

Rose shivered. She had no idea what the Dalek was up to, but she knew the creatures well enough to know that once they had whatever they wanted from the soldiers of World War II, they wouldn’t care what side the humans were fighting on. They would exterminate them all. The question was, what _did_ the Daleks want? And how long would it be before they got it?

\----

‘They're Daleks,’ the Doctor told Winston. They were now back inside the building, in a room that looked a like it was probably the Prime Minister's office. ‘They're called Daleks!’

‘They are Bracewell's Ironsides, Doctor,’ insisted Wnston. ‘Look. Blueprints, statistics, field tests, photographs. He invented them.’ Rose looked at the papers he was indicating. They certainly looked genuine… but they couldn’t be. The Daleks had perpetrated this whole thing, they must have.

But for what purpose?

The Doctor was still arguing but Winston was having none of it. ‘He approached one of our brass hats a few months ago,’ he said. ‘Fellow's a genius.’

‘A Scottish genius, too,’ said Amy. ‘Maybe you should listen to him.’

‘But the Doctor’s right,’ said Rose. ‘Winston, trust me. These things are more than just machines. They’re aliens and they’re evil. The last time we met them, they stole the whole planet and tried to destroy reality itself.’

‘They stole the planet?’ asked Amy, half surprised, half disbelieving.

Rose looked at her curiously. ‘What year did we pick you up from?’ she asked her.

‘2010.’

Rose’s brow furrowed further and she didn’t need to look at him to know that the Doctor’s had done the same. ‘But they invaded Earth last year for you,’ he said to Amy. ‘Lots of planets in the sky. You don’t forget that.’

Now it was Amy’s brow that furrowed in confusion.

‘Amy, tell me you remember the Daleks.’

Amy shook her head. ‘No,’ she said like she wasn’t sure if she should be confused or sorry.

And that was another odd thing to add to the list. How could Amy not remember the Daleks invading? The Doctor was right, that wasn’t something you just forgot.

The Doctor stared at Amy for a moment longer before shaking his head to clear it. ‘We’ll worry about that later,’ he said and then turned back to Winston. ‘Winston, you have to believe me. Bracewell didn’t event these creatures. And you can’t trust them.’ He lowered his voice as a Dalek glided past the open door. Rose eyed it suspiciously. ‘They’re totally hostile.’

‘Precisely,’ said Winston. ‘They will win me the war.’

\----

They followed Winston to another room that looked like it must be the main war room. There was a big table in the centre of it, dedicated to a map of the immediate war zone. An assortment of telephones were placed at various places around the room.

The Doctor had given up trying to convince Winston so Rose decided that now would be a good time to brainstorm ideas of what the Daleks could be up to. ‘They must be trapped here,’ she said.

The Doctor nodded. ‘Most probably, but why get involved in the humans’ war? And they didn’t just get involved; they’ve integrated themselves into it. Fake blueprints, the works. They're up to something. But what is it? What are they after?’

‘Well, let's just ask, shall we?’ said Amy before striding purposely towards the Dalek that was on the other side of the room. She ignored the Doctor and Rose’s warnings to stay away from it.

Amy tapped the Dalek on its metal casing and it turned its eyestalk towards her. Rose bit her thumbnail, hoping that whatever game the Daleks were playing, they would keep on playing it for long enough for Amy to get a safe distance away.

‘Can I be of assistance?’ asked the Dalek.

‘Oh. Yes, yes,’ said Amy, bending down a little to talk to it. ‘See, my friends reckon you're dangerous. That you're an alien. Is it true?’

‘I am your soldier.’

‘Yeah. Got that bit. Love a squaddie. What else, though?’

Unsurprisingly, the Dalek didn’t answer her.

‘Please excuse me. I have duties to perform,’ it said and Rose’s jaw almost dropped. Over the years of travelling in the TARDIS, she had seen and heard many incredible things… but nothing quite as impossible as a Dalek saying please. Even if it was said in that rude way that people say it when brushing someone off. She glanced at the Doctor out of the corner of her eye and saw him tense his jaw before striding back over to where Winston was surveying the map on the centre table.

‘Winston. Winston, please,’ he said, once again trying to convince the man of the truth about his new "secret weapon".

But Winston’s resolve was unwavering. ‘We are waging total war, Doctor,’ he said. ‘Day after day the Luftwaffe pound this great city like an iron fist. Men, women and children slaughtered. Families torn apart. Wren's churches in flame.’

‘Yeah. Try the Earth in flames,’ the Doctor interrupted but Winston carried on.

‘I weep for my country. I weep for my empire. It is breaking my heart.’

‘You're resisting, Winston,’ said the Doctor, giving the man’s shoulders a comforting squeeze. ‘The whole world knows you're resisting. You're a beacon of hope.’

‘But for _how long_? Millions of innocent lives will be saved if I use these Ironsides now.’

A Dalek approached them. ‘Can I be of assistance?’ it asked. Rose didn’t think she would ever get used to hearing the Daleks be polite. Then again, she didn’t expect it to last long.

The Doctor spun round to face the Dalek. ‘Shut it,’ he said before quickly turning back to Winston. ‘Listen to me. Just listen. The Daleks have no conscience, no mercy, no pity. They are my oldest and deadliest enemy. You cannot trust them.’

But Winston still was not listening. ‘If Hitler invaded hell, I would give a favourable reference to the Devil. These machines are our salvation.’ A siren sounded and everybody paused their talking to look up at the ceiling for a moment. ‘Oh, the All Clear,’ said Winston. ‘We are safe, for now.’

He walked out of the room. The Dalek followed him and the Doctor glared at it as it went.

‘Doctor, it's the All Clear,’ said Amy as she and Rose walked up to him. ‘You okay?’

Rose knew the answer to that. The Doctor was far from okay. She knew the effect the Daleks had on him. They reminded him of everything he had lost and all the things he had done which he wished he hadn’t had to have done.

‘What does hate look like?’ he asked Amy, ignoring her question.

‘Hate?’ asked Amy, confused.

‘It looks like a Dalek. And I'm going to prove it.’

\----

The Doctor, Rose and Amy made their way to the laboratory that Bracewell had made his own. The man himself was in front of a desk; one of his “creations” was there too, offering him a cup of tea. For a moment, Rose considered asking for one too - she could really do with a cuppa right now – but she came to her senses a second later. There was no way in hell she was going to ask a Dalek for tea.

The Doctor strode into the room. ‘All right, Prof. Now, the PM's been filling me in. Amazing things, these Ironsides of yours. Amazing. You must be very proud of them.’

‘Just doing my bit,’ said Bracewell, modestly. If it weren’t for the fact that this man was somehow connected to the Daleks, Rose thought she would rather like him. He was nice and had spirit, even though the world was at war around him.

‘Not bad for a Paisley boy,’ said Amy, teasing but still approving.

Bracewell’s smile widened. ‘Yes, I thought I detected a familiar cadence, my dear,’ he said to Amy.

But the Doctor obviously wasn’t in the mood for the Scots to start reminiscing. ‘How did you do it?’ he asked Bracewell. ‘Come up with the idea?’

Bracewell shrugged. ‘How does the muse of invention come to anyone?’

‘But you get a lot of these clever notions, do you?’

Bracewell’s modesty was still intact but it waned a bit as pride and excitement took over. ‘Well, ideas just seem to teem from my head,’ he told them. ‘Wonderful things, like. Let me show you.’ He picked up a stack of papers and handed them to the Doctor. They were more diagrams and blueprints. ‘Some musings on the potential of hypersonic flight. Gravity bubbles that can sustain life outside of the terrestrial atmosphere. Came to me in the bath.’

Rose peered at the drawings over the Doctor’s shoulder. She didn’t understand the science of it but she understood it well enough to know that it was way beyond the knowledge of a human scientist from 1940.

The Doctor obviously agreed. ‘And are these your ideas or theirs?’ he asked Bracewell.

It took a few seconds for Bracewell to realise what the Doctor was getting at. ‘Oh no, no, no,’ he said once he understood. ‘These robots are entirely under my control, Doctor.’ The Dalek from before came back with his tea. Bracewell took the offered cup, thanking the Dalek, and then turned back to the Doctor, ‘They are the perfect servant, and the perfect warrior.’

That last bit caused the Doctor’s expression to turn dark. ‘I don't know what you're up to, Professor,’ he said, ‘but whatever they've promised, you cannot trust them. Call them what you like, the Daleks are death.’

His voice was low but not enough for it not to be heard. 

‘Yes, Doctor,’ said Winston who was just now walking into the room. ‘Death to our enemies. Death to the forces of darkness, and death to the Third Reich.’

‘Yes, Winston,’ said the Doctor, his voice louder this time and full of irritation, ‘and death to everyone else too.’

‘Would you care for some tea?’ asked the Dalek, gliding up to the Doctor. The timing was so awful; it was almost like it was trying to make him angry.

Which was exactly what happened.

The Doctor’s hand flew threw the air and smacked away the tray that the Dalek was holding, sending it crashing to the floor. ‘Stop this!’ he yelled. ‘What are you doing here? What do you want?’

‘We seek only to help you,’ said the Dalek, backing up a bit.

‘To do what?’

‘To win the war.’

‘Really? Which war?’

The Dalek faltered and Rose had to commend it on it’s acting. ‘I do not understand,’ it finally said.

‘This war,’ said the Doctor, ‘against the Nazis, or your war? The war against the rest of the Universe? The war against all life forms that are not Dalek?’

‘I do not understand. I am your soldier,’ repeated the Dalek.

The Doctor’s jaw twitched and Rose recognised the look in his eyes. He had just lost the last of his patience. ‘Oh, yeah?’ he said to the Dalek before turning around and picking up a heavy looking spanner from the floor. ‘Okay. Okay, soldier, defend yourself.’

He started hitting the Dalek with the spanner. Repeatedly.

“Doctor, don’t!’ cried Rose, more scared for his safety than the Dalek’s.

‘Come on. Fight back,’ shouted the Doctor when the Dalek merely repeated it’s offer of tea. ‘You want to, don't you? You know you do.’ The others continued to yell at him, begging him to calm down, but the Doctor wasn’t listening. ‘What are you waiting for? Look, you hate me. You want to kill me. Well, go on. Kill me. Kill me!’

‘Doctor, stop!’ cried Rose again. ‘Before it _does_ kill you.’

But the Dalek, surprisingly, did not defend itself.

‘Please desist from striking me. I am your soldier.’

The Doctor finally stopped hitting it and threw the spanner to the ground. ‘You are my enemy!’ he said, standing up a little straighter. ‘And I am yours. You are everything I despise. The worst thing in all creation. I've defeated you time and time again. I've defeated you. I sent you back into the Void. I saved the whole of reality from you. I am the Doctor. And you are the Daleks.’ He kicked it hard, sending it hurtling backwards and into the far wall.

For a few seconds, the Dalek was totally still, but then something in the air shifted and it swivelled its eyestalk back around to meet the Doctor’s gaze.

‘Correct.’


	9. Victory of the Daleks Part Two

‘Review testimony.’

‘I am the Doctor. And you are the Daleks.’

Rose looked nervously to the Doctor as the recording of his words from a few moments ago filled the room. This was bad. Rose didn’t even know what "this" even was, but still… it was definitely bad.

‘Testimony?’ asked the Doctor as a second Dalek glided up to stand beside the first. At least Rose wasn’t the only one confused by the turn of events. ‘What are you talking about, testimony?’

The Daleks didn’t answer him. ‘Transmitting testimony now,’ they said instead.

‘Transmit what, where?’

Rose still had no idea what this testimony was for… but she had a pretty good idea of where it was going. Somewhere, probably hidden in orbit above the planet, were more Daleks. Rose revaluated her previous assessment of the Daleks’ reason for being here. They weren’t trapped – they were waiting. Waiting for the Doctor.

‘Testimony accepted,’ said one of the Daleks after a few seconds.

‘Get back, all of you,’ shouted the Doctor, motioning for everyone to get away from them.

Winston, who seemed to finally be believing that the Daleks were a threat, called some soldiers into the room. But they were no match for the Daleks. The two men who hurried to their Prime Minister’s aid had only made it two steps into the room before they were exterminated.

‘Stop it, stop it, please,’ said Bracewell. Amazingly, he still thought he was in control of the Daleks. ‘What are you doing? You are my Ironsides.’

And that’s when Rose realised that Bracewell was just another pawn in the Dalek’s game. He just didn’t know it.

‘We are the Daleks,’ said one of the Daleks, turning to face Bracewell.

‘But I created you!’

‘No.’ The Dalek fired at Bracewell, the energy bolt slicing his hand off and revealing nothing but wiring and circuitry where blood and flesh should be. ‘We created you.’

Rose rushed over to help Bracewell stay on his feet. The shock on his face was enough to convince her that he was not the same as his creators.

‘Victory. Victory. Victory,’ cried the Daleks and Rose looked up just in time to see them disappear in a bright white light. A teleport.

It was Amy who broke the silence that followed the Daleks’ departure. ‘What just happened, Doctor?’ she asked.

‘I wanted to know what they wanted,’ said the Doctor, sounding a bit too defeated for Rose’s liking. ‘What their plan was. _I_ was their plan.’ Then his expression shifted, his face setting in hard in determination. Rose, sensing his next move, made sure that Bracewell was okay on his own and then ran after the Doctor who was just now leaving the room. Amy shouted after them but Rose didn’t turn around, she knew that she and Winston would be following.

And that’s exactly what they did, all the way to the TARDIS.

‘Testimony accepted,’ said the Doctor as he pulled his key out to unlock the door. ‘That's what they said. My testimony.’

‘It’s not your fault,’ said Rose.

‘Rose is right,’ said Amy. ‘Don't beat yourself up because you were right. So, what do we do? Is this what we do now? Chase after them?’

‘This is what I do, yeah,’ said the Doctor, ‘and it's dangerous, so you wait here.’

‘No way,’ said Rose, brushing past him to walk into the TARDIS. ‘I’m not letting you face God knows how many Daleks on your own.’

The Doctor made a noise that was half annoyed, half proud and then turned back to Amy. ‘We’ll be back.’

‘What, so you mean I've got to stay safe down here in the middle of the _London Blitz_?’ said Amy.

'Safe as it gets around me.’ 

The Doctor ran into the TARDIS and shut the door behind him. A second later, he was at the console and straight into action. He used the scanner to search for the Dalek ship and it was less than a minute before he found it. ‘Bingo!’ he said, making Rose smile a bit.

The central column was already moving and Rose expected them to land any second now… but then the Doctor rushed into the interior rooms of the TARDIS, leaving Rose very confused. ‘I thought we were chasing Daleks?’ she shouted after him.

‘We are,’ she heard him shout back, though his voice was quite faint. A minute later, he reappeared. ‘Just needed to get something.’ He put a small object in his pocket that looked a lot like…

‘What do you need a Jammy Dodger for?’ she asked, now even more confused.

He winked at her. ‘Insurance.’ He moved back to the console and flicked a switch and then the TARDIS did finally land.

The Doctor and Rose glanced at the TARDIS door; each gathering up the courage to face what was outside it. ‘Well, once more unto the breach, then,’ said Rose, trying to sound confident.

The Doctor nodded. ‘Just one more thing to do before we go out there,’ he said, turning to face her, ‘and it’s very, _very_ important.’

‘What’s that?’

He cupped her face in his hands and leant down to kiss her gently. ‘I love you,’ he whispered once he had pulled away.

‘I love you, too,’ said Rose, taking his hand in hers. He smiled at that.

‘Right, then. Let’s go.’

‘Allons-y.’

The Doctor paused and shot her another wink. She gave him her trademark cheeky smile that she knew he loved and, together, they walked out of the TARDIS.

\----

‘How about that cuppa now, then?’ said the Doctor as he strode into the main area of the Dalek ship. Rose was right behind him, though he had reluctantly had to let go of her hand.

‘It is the Doctor,’ said one of the Daleks, this one a familiar gold colour. It must have had the job of manning the ship while the others set the trap. The Doctor fought to let his annoyance and shame show on his face. The Daleks had set a trap for him and he had walked straight into it.

But they would soon learn that putting him in a trap was a very bad idea. 

‘Exterminate!’ cried one of the other Daleks, bringing the Doctor out of his thoughts and making him spring back into action.

‘Wait, wait, wait,’ he said and, not surprisingly, the Daleks did. For such an intelligent lot, they really did never learn from their mistakes. ‘I wouldn't if I were you,’ he continued, getting the Jammy Dodger out of his pocket and holding it up for the Daleks to see. ‘TARDIS self-destruct, and you know what that means. My ship goes, you all go with it.’

He glanced at Rose and saw that, even though she was keeping her expression serious for the Daleks’ benefit, she was fighting between being highly amused at his bluff, and being highly worried that it wouldn’t work.

‘You would not use such a device,’ said one of the Daleks. 

‘Try me.’

A Dalek rolled towards him but the Doctor backed up a step. ‘Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah. No scans. No nothing. One move and I'll destroy us all, you got that? TARDIS bang bang, Daleks boom!’ The Dalek paused for a second before moving back to join its comrades and the Doctor seized his chance to take control of the situation. ‘Good boy. This ship's pretty beaten up. Running on empty, I'd say, like you. When we last met, you were at the end of your rope. Finished.’

‘One ship survived,’ said the Dalek.

‘And you fell back through time, yes. Crippled, dying.’

‘We picked up a trace. One of the Progenitor devices.’

‘Progenitor?’ asked Rose. She was eyeing the chamber behind the three daleks where a small device was suspended in the air. The flashing lights on the side of the device told the Doctor that, whatever it was, it had already been activated. ‘What’s that?’

‘It is our past, and our future,’ answered the Dalek, cryptically.

‘Oh?’ asked the Doctor, surprised and intrigued. ‘That's deep. That is deep for a Dalek. What does it mean, though?’

‘It contains pure Dalek DNA,’ said the gold Dalek. ‘Thousands were created. All were lost, save one.’

‘What about that testimony thing?’ asked Rose. ‘And Bracewell? Why did you do all that?’

Good question, thought the Doctor. And then he realised the answer.

‘Oh, I get it. I get it,’ he said. Despite the shame he still felt for getting played by the Daleks, he could still see the funny side of the predicament that they had found themselves in. ‘Oh ho! This is rich. The Progenitor wouldn't recognise you, would it? It saw you as impure. Your DNA is unrecognisable as Dalek.’

‘A solution was devised,’ said the Daleks and the Doctor’s grin widened. They couldn’t even properly admit to it.

‘So you needed the Doctor to identify you?’ asked Rose, catching on. The Doctor couldn’t help but feel the familiar pride. She really was rather quick.

‘They knew that the Progenitor would recognise me, the Daleks' greatest enemy,’ he told her, ‘that it would accept my word. So they set a trap.’ He turned back to address the Daleks but faltered when he saw the gold one moving towards a set of controls. ‘No, no, no. What are you doing?’ he asked, holding up the Jammy Dodger again, reminding the Daleks of his threat.

But it was too late. Whatever the Dalek was doing had already been done. ‘Withdraw now, Doctor,’ it said, ‘or the city dies in flames.’

The Doctor knew that, unlike his own, the Dalek’s threat was real. The Daleks didn’t bluff.

‘What did you do?' asked Rose, a hint of panic in her voice.

‘We have control of the city’s power grid,’ explained the gold Dalek.

The Doctor glared at them as he realised what they had done. The ship they were in was a wreck and did not have enough firepower to destroy London. But if they had control of the electricity and they used that control to switch on all the lights, then the city would be clearly visible to the German planes that were no doubt still heading for it. Then the Daleks wouldn’t need any firepower…

‘The humans will destroy themselves,’ continued the Dalek, finishing the Doctor’s thought.

‘Turn those lights off now,’ he told them, once again holding up the Jammy Dodger. ‘Turn London off or I swear I will use the TARDIS self destruct.’

But the Daleks weren’t backing down that easily.

‘Stalemate, Doctor. Leave us and return to Earth.’

‘What?’ asked Rose in disbelief. ‘You’re just gonna leave?’ Not very Dalek-like is it? Running away?’

‘Extinction is not an option,’ said the Dalek. ‘We shall return to our own time and begin again.’

‘No, no, no,’ said the Doctor, angrily. ‘I won't let you get away this time. I won't.’

Suddenly, a strange noise filled the room and the Doctor glanced at Rose, worriedly, before his gaze fell on the chamber that was behind the Daleks. The Progenitor had done it’s work.

‘We have succeeded,’ said one of the Daleks. If the Doctor didn’t know any better, he would say it sounded smug. ‘DNA reconstruction is complete.’ The three Daleks backed away from the chamber as the door opened and it began to spark. ‘Observe, Doctor, a new Dalek paradigm.’

The Doctor watched as, out of the smoke within the chamber, five new Daleks emerged. They were bigger and bulkier than the others and each of them were a different colour – blue, red, yellow, orange, and white. If the Doctor was honest with himself, he thought they looked a bit like huge Lego blocks, with their brght colours and slightly squared edges. But he knew better than to let their appearance deceive him. The Daleks would always be the deadliest beings in the universe, no matter hat they looked like.

‘The Progenitor has fulfilled our new destiny,’ said one of the ordinary, khaki coloured Daleks. ‘Behold, the restoration of the Daleks. The resurrection of the master race!’


	10. Victory of the Daleks Part Three

‘All hail the new Daleks. All hail the new Daleks,’ chanted the smaller, more familiar Daleks.

The new White Dalek turned to face them. ‘Yes, you are inferior,’ it said in a deep booming voice that reminded the Doctor of the Dalek Emperor.

‘Yes,’ agreed one of the “inferior” Daleks.

‘Then prepare.’

‘We are ready.’

‘Cleanse the unclean,’ said the White Dalek. ‘Total obliteration. Disintegrate.’ The rest of the new Daleks positioned themselves in front of their predecessors and fired their weapons. The three smaller Daleks vanished in an explosion of sparks.

‘Blimey. What do you do to the ones who mess up?’ asked the Doctor.

In retrospect, that may not have been the best idea as it drew the new Daleks’ attention to him and Rose. Oh well, it was going to happen eventually anyway.

‘You are the Doctor,’ said the White Dalek, advancing towards him. ‘You must be exterminated.’

The Doctor and Rose stepped back, the Doctor doing a little side step so that he was shielding Rose the best he could. He once again held the Jammy Dodger out in front of him. ‘Don't mess with me, sweetheart,’ he told the Dalek. In the back of his mind, he wondered how much longer he could keep this ruse going.

At least for a little longer, it seemed, for the White Dalek backed down. ‘We are the paradigm of a new Dalek race,’ it said, unaware that the room was now being observed by a small group of humans, down in the Cabinet War Rooms of London. ‘Scientist, Strategist, Drone, Eternal, and the Supreme.’

‘Which would be you, I'm guessing,’ said the Doctor, also unaware that they were being watched. ‘Well, you know, nice paint job. I'd be feeling pretty swish if I looked like you. Pretty supreme. Question is, what do we do now? Either you turn off your clever machine or I'll blow you and your new paradigm into eternity.’

‘As well as yourself and the female,’ said the Dalek.

‘Occupational hazard,’ said the Doctor, putting his acting to the ultimate test. Sure, he could bluff his own life away… but he knew he would never be able to risk Rose’s.

Unfortunately, the Daleks knew it too.

‘Scan reveals nothing,’ said the Blue Dalek, moving firwards. ‘TARDIS self destruct device non-existent.’

Oh well, it had been good while it had lasted. And that particular ruse had lasted a lot longer than the Doctor had thought it would have. He brought the biscuit to his mouth and took a big bite. ‘All right, it's a Jammy Dodger,’ he said, his mouth still full, ‘but I was promised tea.’

He reached behind him to grab Rose’s hand, knowing that they only had a few seconds before the Daleks exterminated them. She felt her hand grip his and he was just about ready to leg it back to the TARDIS when suddenly alarms started ringing all over the ship.

‘Alert. Unidentified projectile approaching,’ said the Blue Dalek. ‘Correction, multiple projectiles.’

‘What have the humans done?’ asked the Supreme Dalek.

‘Outsmarted you, by the sounds of it,’ said Rose, stepping forwards so that she was now side-by-side with the Doctor. Her tone may have been taunting, but the Doctor could hear the relief in it.

‘Explain. Explain. Explain.’

But before they could, a new voice echoed through the room.

‘Danny Boy to the Doctor. Danny Boy to the Doctor. Are you receiving me? Over.’

And that was all the Doctor needed to be able to slot the puzzle pieces into place.

‘Oh ho! Winston, you beauty!’ he shouted and Rose let out a laugh that was half surprised, half proud.

‘Danny Boy to the Doctor. Come in. Over.’

‘Loud and clear, Danny Boy,’ said the Doctor as he squeezed Rose’s hand, a silent signal for her to get ready to run. ‘Big dish, side of the ship. Blow it up. Over.’

‘Exterminate the Doctor,’ yelled the Supreme Dalek. But the Doctor and Rose were already halfway to the TARDIS. They ducked as the Daleks fired at them, missing them by inches.

Once they were safe inside the TARDIS, the Doctor wasted no time tuning in the scanner to pick up the radio frequency that Danny Boy had been using.

‘It must have been Bracewell,’ said Rose, looking at the scanner that was showing three World War Two Spitfires zooming around the Dalek spaceship. ‘He mentioned gravity bubbles and whatnot before. He must have decided to fight back against the Daleks.’

The Doctor nodded, smiling a bit. The Daleks had made their human replica a bit too convincing, it seemed.

Then his smile fell as two of the three Spitfires were shot down by the Dalek saucer.

‘Danny Boy to the Doctor. Only me left now. Anything you can do, sir? Over.’

The Doctor thought for a moment. There was something he could do… but it wasn’t much. He grabbed the TARDIS’s inbuilt radio and held the microphone up to speak into it.

‘The Doctor to Danny Boy. The Doctor to Danny Boy. I can disrupt the Dalek shields, but not for long. Over.’

‘Good show, Doctor. Go to it. Over,’ came Danny Boy’s reply and the Doctor immediately set to work. He had the Dalek’s shields down in a matter of seconds... which was probably the same amount of time that they would stay down.

Luckily Danny Boy was quick off the mark. ‘I'm going in. Wish me luck. Over.’

The Doctor silently did so. He glanced over to see that Rose was crossing her fingers, eyes fixed on the scanner screen that was showing Danny Boy’s attack.

An attack that was successful. Danny Boy hit the dish straight on, destroying it in one blow. Rose clapped her hands in celebration. ‘Good show, Danny Boy,’ she said.

‘Danny Boy to the Doctor. Going in for another attack,’ came Danny Boy’s voice over the speakers. The Doctor quickly checked to make sure the Daleks’ shield were down. They were. This was their best chance.

‘The Doctor to Danny Boy. The Doctor to Danny Boy,’ he said into the radio. ‘Destroy this ship. Over.’

‘What about you, Doctor?’

‘We'll be okay.’

Then a new voice came over the radio link.

‘Doctor, call off your attack,’ said the Supreme Dalek. The Doctor looked back to the scanner on the wall to see that it was now showing the Dalek in question.

‘Ah ha. What, and let you scuttle off back to the future?’ said the Doctor. ‘No fear. This is the end for you. The final end.’

‘Call off the attack, or we will destroy the Earth.’

This time it was Rose who laughed. ‘You just tried that,’ she said. ‘Didn’t exactly work out well for you.’

‘She’s right,’ said the Doctor. ‘You've already played your last card.’

The Supreme Dalek’s next words wiped both of their smiles away in a second.

‘Bracewell is a bomb.’

The Doctor and Rose glanced worriedly at each other. ‘You’re bluffing,’ said the Doctor to the Dalek on the screen, even though he knew that this was not the case. But with any luck, the Daleks would give him some extra information while proving their point. ‘Deception's second nature to you. There isn't a sincere bone in your body. There isn't a bone in your body,’ he added as an afterthought.

‘His power is derived from an Oblivion Continuum,' said the Dalek. 'Call off your attack, or we will detonate the android.’

The Doctor was warring within himself. This was his best chance to get rid of the Dalek’s for good, to rid the universe of them once and for all… but he couldn’t let them destroy the Earth. History would collapse if they did. And, more importantly, Amy was down there.

‘Begin countdown of Oblivion Continuum,’ said the Dalek, obviously getting impatient. ‘Choose, Doctor. Destroy the Daleks or save the Earth.’

The Doctor looked back to Rose and she gave him a small nod. He had never been more grateful to have her by his side. She always understood him even when he didn’t say a word. And she always helped him make the tough decisions.

The Doctor held up the radio microphone. ‘The Doctor to Danny Boy. The Doctor to Danny Boy. Withdraw,’ he said.

‘Say again, sir. Over,’ said Danny Boy, sounding unsure.

‘Withdraw. Return to Earth. Over and out.’

‘But sir.’

‘There's no time. You have to return to Earth now. Over.’ He put the radio down and went straight to the TARDIS controls, sending them back to the Cabinet War Rooms. Moments later, the TARDIS landed and the Doctor ran outside, Rose right behind him. The Daleks would be gone in a matter of minutes but the Doctor knew them well enough to know that they would most likely activate their bomb anyway. Like he had said before, deception was second nature to them.

It didn’t take them long to find Bracewell. Rose had been right; he was right in the thick of it, helping Winston. Amy was there too but the Doctor didn’t have time to stop and chat. He ran forwards and punched Bracewell right in the jaw, knocking him to the ground. ‘Ow!’ he shouted, shaking his hand in pain. The android’s skin was tougher than it looked. He quickly composed himself as he realised that Bracewell probably deserved an explanation as to why he was now laying flat on his back. ‘Sorry, Professor, you're a bomb,' he said. 'An inconceivably massive Dalek bomb.’

‘What?’ Bracewell half-shouted from still on the floor.

‘He’s right,' said Rose, kneeling down next to him. Her voice was a lot calmer and careful than the Doctor's had been. ‘There's an Oblivion…’ she tailed off, unsure of the rest of the devices name.

‘An Oblivion Continuum,’ clarified the Doctor, trying to match Rose's comforting tone. ‘A captured wormhole that provides perpetual power. Detonate that, and the Earth will bleed through into another dimension. Now keep down.’

The Doctor knelt down next to Rose and ripped open Bracewell's shirt. He then got out his sonic screwdriver and used it to open up the android’s chest plate.

Poor Bracewell looked more confused by the second.

‘Sorry again,’ muttered the Doctor but then he froze as he saw the Oblivion Continuum in Bracewell’s chest activate. The bomb consisted of a circle made out of five segments. Four of those segments were currently blue, which meant safe, but the first one had turned yellow. And any minute now it would turn red and the next segment would activate. And once all five segments were red… well, then there would be no more Earth.

‘Well?’ asked Amy, obviously waiting for the Doctor to do something. The problem was, the Doctor had no idea what he _could_ do.

‘I don't know, I don't know, I don't know,’ he said, trying to stay calm. ‘Never seen one up close before.’

He started to scan Bracewell with his sonic. There must be some way of stopping the bomb.

‘So what, they've wired him up to detonate?’ asked Amy.

‘Oh no, not wired him up,' said the Doctor.' He is a bomb. Walking, talking, pow, exploding, the moment that flashes red.’ He pointed to the five segments on Bracewell’s chest.

‘There's a blue wire or something you have to cut, isn't there?’ said Amy. ‘There's always a blue wire…’ The Doctor smiled at her encouragingly but the smile fell when Amy paused, now unsure of herself. ‘Or a red one.’

‘You're not helping,’ said the Doctor, fully aware that he was being rude. But his rudeness was the least of their problems at the moment. He turned to the others, hoping they had some idea.

‘Is there anything in the TARDIS?’ asked Rose, quickly.

The Doctor shook his head. ‘Don’t think so. And besides, we’d never get him there in time.’

‘It's incredible,’ said Winston looking down at Bracewell. ‘He talked to us about his memories. The Great War.’

‘Someone else's stolen thoughts, implanted in a positronic brain,’ said the Doctor offhandedly as he started to pace, trying to think of a solution. And then it hit him. Oh, Winston really was a beauty! ‘Tell me about it. Bracewell,’ he said, rushing back to the scientist's side. ‘Tell me about your life.’

‘Doctor, I really don't think this is the time,’ said Bracewell, on the verge of sobbing.

‘Tell me, and prove you're human. Tell me everything.’

Slowly, as if unsure, Bracewell started to recount facts of his life - where he was born, things like that.

But factual wouldn’t be enough. He needed emotion.

The Doctor tried encouraging him to get more personal, urging Bracewell to describe how it had felt when his parents had died.

‘It hurt. It hurt, Doctor, it hurt so badly,’ said Bracewell and the Doctor thought that maybe they were getting somewhere. ‘It was like a wound. I though it was worse than a wound. Like I'd been emptied out. There was nothing left.’

Another segment of the bomb flashed yellow. The two before it were already red. It wasn’t working, they needed more.

‘Good. Remember it now, Edwin,’ urged the Doctor. ‘The ash trees by the Post Office and your mum and dad, and losing them, and the men in the trenches you saw die. Remember it. Feel it. You feel it because you're human. You're not like them. You're not like the Daleks.’

‘It hurts, Doctor. It hurts so much.’

Out of the corner of his eye, the Doctor saw Rose grab Bracewell’s hand.

‘Embrace it,’ he said, keeping his focus on the man in front of him. ‘That means you're alive. They cannot explode that bomb because you're a human being. You are flesh and blood. They cannot explode that bomb. Believe it. You are Professor Edwin Bracewell, and you, my friend, are a human being!’

The last blue segment on Bracewell’s chest turned yellow.

The Doctor’s face fell. ‘It's not working. I can't stop it.’

Then Amy leant down on the other side of Bracewell, a knowing smile on her face. ‘Hey, Paisley,’ she almost-whispered. ‘Ever fancied someone you know you shouldn't?’

‘What?’ asked Bracewell, looking up at her.

‘It hurts, doesn't it?’ The Doctor missed the meaningful glance Amy gave him at that, and, luckily (or maybe not-so-luckily), so did Rose. ‘But kind of a good hurt.’

‘I really shouldn't talk about her,’ said Bracewell with a new shyness.

The Doctor looked up at Amy and smiled proudly as she continued to gently coax more out of Bracewell. And as she did so, the yellow segments of the Oblivion Continuum started to turn back to blue.

‘What was her name?’ the Doctor asked Bracewell.

Bracewell’s eyes shone with love, like a schoolboy’s did when talking about their first crush. ‘Dorabella,’ he answered.

‘Dorabella?’ asked the Doctor, not being able to hide his amusement. But then he felt Rose whack his elbow with the hand that wasn’t currently in Bracewell’s and he quickly corrected himself. ‘It's a lovely name. It's a beautiful name.'

‘Tell us about her,’ said Rose, smiling encouragingly at Bracewell.

‘Oh, such a smile,’ said Bracewell, his voice wistful. ‘And her eyes. Her eyes were so blue. Almost violet, like the last touch of sunset on the edge of the world. Dorabella.’ The last word was little more than a whisper.

One by one, the five segments of the Oblivion Continuum turned back to blue and the bomb was deactivated – for good.

The Doctor couldn’t hide his smile. ‘Welcome to the human race,’ he told Bracewell before turning and pointing at Winston. ‘You’re brilliant,’ he said. He turned back to Bracewell. ‘You're brilliant.’ He turned to Rose. ‘You’re brilliant.’ And, lastly, to Amy. ‘And you, I…’ He couldn’t express in words how proud he was of her in that moment so instead he leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead.

But he quickly released her and jumped up. There was still the small matter of the Daleks to take care of and, if he was quick, he might still be able to catch them before they disappeared. ‘Got to stop them. Stop the Daleks, ‘ he said, moving towards the door.

But Bracewell stopped him. ‘Wait, Doctor. Wait, wait. It's too late.’ He was sitting up now, a concentrated look on his face. ‘Gone. They've gone.’

‘No! They can't!’ shouted the Doctor in frustration. ‘They can't have got away from me again.’ Bracewell was talking again but the Doctor couldn’t hear him, all he could focus on was his failure to stop the Daleks.

Amy tried giving him words of comfort and praise for saving the Earth, but it was the feel of Rose’s hand on his shoulder that was what cleared the Doctor’s head the most. The anger of being beaten by the Daleks was still there but now he could focus on the battles that he had won. Amy was right; he had saved the Earth. Definitely not too shabby at all.

\----

After saying goodbye to Winston and Bracewell, the latter of which was overwhelmed to discover that he was not going to be deactivated and could still live his human life, the Doctor, Amy and Rose headed back to the TARDIS. Well, the Doctor had also made a small detour to decommission the new and improved Spitfires that Danny Boy and his comrades had used, as well as getting rid of any other technological advancement that Bracewell had made that would not fit in too well with 1940. Winston had not been happy about that but that was too bad. It was history and it couldn’t be changed.

‘So, you have enemies then?’ asked Amy as they reached the TARDIS. The Doctor’s lips twitched up in a smile at her question. He wondered whether she knew that she had just half-quoted the man they had just said goodbye to.

‘Everyone's got enemies,’ he answered.

Amy rolled her eyes. ‘Yeah, but mine's the woman outside Budgens with the mental Jack Russell. You've got, like, you know, arch-enemies.’

The Doctor shrugged. ‘Suppose so.’ He didn’t really like to think about how many enemies he had made throughout the centuries. If he focussed on all the people and races out there that wanted to kill him, he would never leave the TARDIS.

‘And here's me thinking we'd just be running through time, being daft and fixing stuff. But no, it's dangerous.’

‘Most days, it’s a bit of both,’ said Rose.

‘Pretty much sums it up,’ agreed the Doctor before turning back to Amy. ‘Is that a problem?’

‘I’m still here, aren't I?’ She gave him a smile but it fell as she saw through his own. ‘You're worried about the Daleks,’ she said. It wasn’t a question.

‘I'm always worried about the Daleks,’ said the Doctor.

‘We’ve beaten them before, we’ll do it again,’ said Rose, once again putting a comforting hand on his shoulder. Once again, the Doctor was grateful.

‘And It'll take time, won't it?’ added Amy. ‘I mean, there's still not many of them. They'll need a while to build themselves up.’

The Doctor nodded. ‘There's something else, though,’ he said, turning to Amy. ‘Something we've forgotten. Or rather you have.’

‘Me?’

‘You didn't know them, Amy. You'd never seen them before. And you should have done. You should.’

But Amy still looked just as confused as the last time he had questioned her about it. It was obvious that she had no answers for him to solve this particular mystery. So that meant they just had to wait. Time would tell, as they say. The Doctor didn’t like it but there was not much else he could do.

So he let the matter drop for now and unlocked the door to the TARDIS. The three time travellers walked in and, a minute later, the blue box disappeared, leaving behind an empty room… and revealing a singular crack that was in more than just the wall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to cut this episode down to a two-parter, I really did. But I just got too carried away with it. Sorry.
> 
> Anyhoo, the good news is that the next chapter is an original chapter and should hopefully not take too long to write.


	11. Relearning to Fly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter turned out to be a lot fluffier than I had originally intended... but I'm not complaining. Especially seeing as we are back to angst next chapter.

Rose trailed her hands along the console as she circled it, taking care not to accidentally press any buttons. After leaving 1940’s London, Amy had said that she had wanted a tour of the TARDIS and the Doctor had been only too happy to oblige. Rose, however, had elected to sit it out. She hadn’t said so, but she had really needed this little bit of alone time. So much had happened in the past week or so and she just needed a moment to just stay still.

She completed her fifth circuit of the console and came to rest in front of the dematerialisation lever. Her fingers itched to pull it down and send them somewhere new (somewhere nice and sunny would be good) but she refrained. While this particular control was still recognisable, the others were not and she really didn’t want to blow a hole in the universe just because she got a button wrong. Sure, she could make some educational guesses as to what some of the controls did, but it wasn’t worth the risk.

Rose’s shoulders drooped as it suddenly hit her. She didn’t know how to fly the TARDIS anymore.

The TARDIS made a small hum that Rose took as an apology and she looked up at the time rotor. ‘S’okay, girl,’ she said. ‘Not your fault.’

When Rose had first seen that the TARDIS had changed, she hadn’t been expecting it and, if she was honest with herself, it had left her feeling a bit betrayed that she would change on her too. But one comforting hum from the time ship was all it took for Rose to remember that even though she looked different, she was still the same. Much like someone else she knew.

As if he could read her thoughts and was waiting for his cue, the Doctor strolled back into the console room. ‘Where’s Amy?’ Rose asked him.

‘Exploring the gardens,’ he answered, walking up to the console. He began circling it just like Rose had been doing before. ‘Or at least she was half an hour ago.’ He stopped a couple of steps away from Rose, his brow crinkling. ‘Supposed she’s moved on from there by now.’ Then his frown disappeared and he shrugged. ‘She’ll be fine. If she’s gotten herself lost, I’m sure I’ll be able to find her.’

‘So where have you been for the last half an hour?’ asked Rose. She wasn’t upset that he had not come back to her, in fact she was a little grateful that he hadn’t – the concept of “alone time” didn’t work very well when there were other people in the room. She was just curious. A curiosity that strengthened when the Doctor gave her his I’ve-been-doing-something-brilliant face. The smile was a little different with his new features, but the twinkle in his eye was exactly as she remembered it from her previous two Doctors.

The Doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out a small rectangular box with a bow. ‘A present,’ he said.

Rose stared at the box for a moment in surprise; they hardly ever gave each other presents. But she soon snapped herself out of it and took the two steps needed to reach the Doctor. She leant up and gave him a kiss on the cheek. ‘What’s the occasion?’ she asked as she pulled away and took the box from him.

‘No occasion,’ said the Doctor. ‘It’s not even a proper present, really,’ he added quickly, suddenly becoming nervous. ‘Just something you asked for and I thought this would be better than just handing it over. Maybe I shouldn’t have done. Now you’re going to be disappointed that it’s not a diamond necklace or something. Not that I wouldn’t get you a diamond necklace.’

Yep, he could still definitely ramble for the universe.

‘I don’t want a diamond necklace,’ she told him gently. ‘Now, can I open my present that I’m sure I’ll love no matter what it is?’ The Doctor visibly relaxed and then nodded. Rose flashed him a smile and then focussed her attention on the box in her hands. She resisted the urge to shake it to hear what was inside and instead carefully removed the bow. Her smile widened when she lifted the lid of the box and saw what inside. It was a sonic screwdriver. And it was exactly the same as her old one, just like she had said she had wanted.

She looked back up at the Doctor and, for a moment, she saw him as he had been when he had given her her first screwdriver. He had been so relieved to see that she liked her gift. Rose leant up again and this time, she kissed him on the lips. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered, moving back slightly.

‘You’re welcome,’ the Doctor whispered back and he moved forwards to capture her lips again. Rose wrapped her arms around his neck, taking care not to poke him with the screwdriver or box that were still in her hands, and hummed happily into the kiss. This was exactly what she had needed – a little bit of familiarity.

When they had finally broken apart from their embrace, Rose realised that this would be the best time to ask the Doctor a question that she had been wanting to ask all day.

‘Can you teach me how to fly the TARDIS again? I’m not sure I know how to now that everything’s changed.’

A flash of something, maybe guilt, passed over the Doctor’s face but he quickly composed himself and gave her a smile. ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Though I’m sure it won’t take long for you to get the hang of it again. It’ll be just like riding a bike. All the main functions are still there they just look a little different.’

Rose gave him a grateful smile and turned to face the console. ‘So where should we start?’

\----

The Doctor had been right; relearning to fly the TARDIS had just been like riding a bike. It had taken Rose no time at all to familiarise herself with the new controls. Well… most of them.

‘What do the blue buttons do?’ she asked the Doctor now that they had finished their lesson and were ready to take a trip out of the vortex.

The Doctor eyed the buttons that Rose had pointed to. ‘No idea,’ he said and then, with a mad grin, he pressed them. He had moved so quickly that Rose hadn’t been able to stop him but thankfully, she needn’t have had to. The TARDIS hadn’t reacted at all.

The Doctor shrugged. ‘Just random blue buttons, I guess. So,’ he clapped his hands together, ‘where are we going, captain?’

Rose couldn’t help but giggle a little at that. ‘No idea. I was thinking maybe we should just set some coordinates and see where we end up.’

‘Rose Tyler, I like your thinking,’ said the Doctor before stepping back and holding his arm out, indicating that she should do the honours. She set the coordinates to random and then finished the dematerialisation sequence. A moment later, the familiar grating sound of the engines filled the room and the central column stopped moving.

‘Right, let’s see where you’ve landed us,’ said the Doctor, reaching for the scanner, but Rose beat him to it. She pressed a few buttons and the screen changed to a view of what was outside.

‘Oh, a museum, brilliant!’ said the Doctor happily. ‘I love museums.’ He gave Rose a quick hug and peck on the cheek before he ran towards the doorway that led to the TARDIS’s interior corridors. ‘I’ll go find Amy,’ he said. ‘Back in a tick.’

Rose chuckled as she watched him practically skip out of view. He could be such a child sometimes. She turned back to the scanner to view the part of the museum that they could see. She couldn’t see many exhibits but the ones she could see definitely didn’t look like anything you would see in a museum from her time. They must have been in the future or on a planet other than Earth.

Or, more than likely, both.

Rose turned and leant back against the console as she waited for the Doctor to fetch Amy and smiled. Even though the coordinates had been set at random, she still felt a little proud that she had landed them somewhere the Doctor would like. She just hoped that this would be a nice relaxing trip for a change. She had had enough surprises for one week.


	12. The Time of Angels Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry about the wait on this one. What with Christmas and New Years and a bunch of personal stuff that has been happening, I just haven't had the motivation to write. But I got there in the end and now I have five new chapters for you that I will be posting over the next few days.

‘Wrong. Wrong. Bit right, mostly wrong.’

Rose chuckled as she watched the Doctor criticise all the labels of the museum exhibits. She had no hope of keeping up with him so she just trailed behind him, taking a better look at the alien artefacts on display.

Amy, however, was not as amused at the Doctor’s antics as Rose was. ‘Yeah, great,’ she said, obviously bored and impatient. ‘Can we go to a planet now? Big space ship? Churchill's bunker? You promised me a planet next.’

As it had turned out, Rose had not landed them on a planet (though, to be fair, she hadn’t been aware of the Doctor’s promise). The museum they were currently in was actually on an asteroid. A very big asteroid, but an asteroid nonetheless.

Still, Rose wished Amy wouldn't be quite so impatient to leave. She was rather enjoying the rest time. Normally she would have been right there with Amy, itching to get their next adventure underway, but, after the week she’d had, a nice quiet trip to a museum was just what she needed.

But, judging by how the Doctor’s expression had suddenly changed and he had stopped at one particular exhibit, it seemed that Rose’s nice quiet trip had just come to an end. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked him as she walked up to look at the artefact that was causing his confused expression. It was a cubed object that looked like it had definitely seen better days. On the top surface of the cube were some symbols. Rose thought they may have been writing… but then why wasn’t it being translated?

‘Oh great, an old box,’ said Amy in much the same bored tone as before. She obviously had not noticed the Doctor’s sudden lack of enthusiasm.

‘It's from one of the old starliners,’ he explained. ‘A Home Box.’

‘What's a Home Box?’

‘Like a black box on a plane, except it homes. Anything happens to the ship, the Home Box flies home with all the flight data.’

‘What are those symbols?’ asked Rose.

‘Old High Gallifreyan,’ said the Doctor before noticing Amy’s confused expression and adding, ‘The lost language of the Time Lords.’

Rose looked back down at the writing. Gallifreyan. No wonder it didn’t translate.

‘There were days,’ continued the Doctor, ‘there were many days, these words could burn stars and raise up empires, and topple gods.’

‘What does it say?’ asked Amy, definitely not bored anymore.

There was an awkward pause before the Doctor answered. 

‘Hello, sweetie.’

‘Hello, sweetie? Are you sure?' asked Amy, squinting at the writing as if that would help her read it. ‘Who’s it from?’

Rose looked up at the Doctor, immediately recognising the look in his eyes. There was a mystery to be solved, which meant that there went her nice relaxing trip. She let out a small sigh. ‘We’re gonna steal it aren’t we?’

\----

Rose ran up to the console and immediately started the process of getting them away from the museum while the Doctor hooked up the Home Box that they had just stolen to the scanner. Amy shut the TARDIS door behind her, blissfully cutting off the sound of the museum’s security alarm, and Rose pulled down the lever that would send them back into the vortex.

‘Let's see if we can get the security playback working,’ said the Doctor and Rose and Amy moved to stand on either side of him, looking up at the scanner. After a minute or two, the screen changed and showed a black and white image of the starliner’s security footage. The footage showed a corridor, and walking along that corridor was a woman whom, even though they had only met the once, Rose would recognise anywhere.

Professor River Song.

Rose wasn’t sure how she felt about this new development. She was rather hoping she would never see River Song again. Not because Rose didn’t like River, she didn’t know nearly enough about her to decide that, but because of who she was – or rather, who she was to the Doctor.

When Rose had first met River in the Library, she had gotten the impression that River was possibly a future girlfriend of the Doctor, but after the end of that adventure – after River had sacrificed herself to save them all – the Doctor had told Rose how she had known his name – his real name. After a bit of prompting, he had reluctantly told her that there was only one time he would tell someone that particular piece of information. During a marriage ceremony.

River wasn’t the Doctor’s possible future girlfriend, she was the Doctor’s possible future _wife_.

Rose’s attention was drawn back to the security footage when she realised that it had sound and that River was talking. ‘Sorry, Alistair,’ she said. She was now in another corridor, this one a dead end. Whoever she was talking to wasn’t in the security camera’s sight. River stared down whoever had her cornered, looking brave and confident in her beautiful floor-length gown and high-heeled shoes. There must have been some formal event happening on the ship. ‘I needed to see what was in your vault,’ continued River. 'Do you all know what's down there? Any of you? Because I'll tell you something. This ship won't reach its destination.’

‘Wait till she runs,’ came a man’s voice, Alistair presumably. ‘Don't make it look like an execution.’ 

So Alistair obviously had some guards with him. But River looked far from worried. She casually checked her watch and started reeling off a bunch of numbers that Rose recognised as coordinates.

‘Triple seven five slash three four nine by ten. Zero twelve slash acorn.’ River pointedly looked at the security camera. ‘Oh, and I could do with an air corridor.’

It took Rose a moment to realise what River was talking about before it suddenly clicked. River had written that writing on the Home Box knowing that the Doctor would find it and then steal it. She knew they were watching.

‘What was that? What did she say?’ asked Amy.

‘Coordinates,’ said the Doctor, already typing in the numbers into the TARDIS console.

Rose looked back to the view of the security footage just in time to see River blow a kiss to Alistair before the wall behind her opened up and she was sucked out into space. Before Rose had time to worry, the Doctor ran past her and to the TARDIS doors. He opened them up and a second later, River came falling through them, knocking the Doctor to the ground and landing on top of him.

River jumped to her feet (rather quickly considering the shoes she was wearing) and looked out of the still open doorway. The starliner that they had just been watching on the Home Box cranked up its engines and sped off.

‘Follow that ship.’

The Doctor instantly got up off the floor and ran to the console. Rose stepped back; deciding to stick to just pressing whatever buttons the Doctor instructed her to. Landing on a stationery asteroid was one thing, but she still didn’t feel quite familiar enough with the new controls to actively participate in a fast-paced pursuit. River, on the other hand, was right next to the Doctor, flying the TARDIS like she had been doing it for years. She was even telling the Doctor what to do.

‘They've gone into warp drive,’ she shouted as the TARDIS shook. ‘We're losing them. Stay close.’

‘I'm trying,’ the Doctor shouted back. Rose felt a bit if of relief at the annoyance in his voice. He obviously wasn’t happy with the situation either.

‘Use the stabilisers,’ said River.

‘There aren't any stabilisers.’

‘The blue switches.’ 

‘Oh, the blue ones don't do anything, they're just blue.’ 

‘Yes, they're blue,’ said River, exasperated. ‘They're the blue stabilisers.’

Rose reached over and pressed the blue buttons that she had been asking the Doctor about not an hour earlier. The TARDIS instantly stopped shaking.

River let out a sigh of relief and stood up a little straighter. ‘See?’ she said to the Doctor before turning to Rose. ‘Thank you, sweetie.’

Rose was thrown off a bit by the endearment but quickly composed herself. ‘Er, no worries,’ she said, not quite sure what else she could say.

The Doctor looked even more annoyed than before. ‘Yeah. Well, it's just boring now, isn't it?’ he said. ‘They're boring-ers. They're blue boring-ers.’ He jabbed the offending blue buttons angrily.

‘Doctor, how come she can fly the TARDIS?’ asked Amy, now moving from her safehold next to the railing.

That did not improve the Doctor’s mood.

‘You call that flying the TARDIS? Ha!’

River was still pressing buttons and flicking switches. ‘Okay. I've mapped the probability vectors, done a fold-back on the temporal isometry, charted the ship to its destination, and parked us right along side.’

Rose’s jaw dropped. ‘What do you mean, parked?’ she asked. ‘We haven’t landed, have we?’ She looked at the unmoving central column. River was right, she had parked them somewhere.

‘Of course we've landed,’ said River, a little bit too smug for Rose’s liking. ‘I just landed her.’

‘But, it didn't make the noise,’ said the Doctor and Rose felt a little less stupid for thinking the exact same thing.

‘What noise?’ asked River but the twinkle in her eyes told Rose that she knew exactly what noise he was referring to. She just wanted the Doctor to make it.

Which he did. Or at least, he tried to.

Rose started to smile at the Doctor’s attempt to imitate the TARDIS’s usual wheezing sound, but then she caught River smiling the same way and let it drop.

‘Its not supposed to make that noise,’ said River. ‘You leave the brakes on.’

‘Yeah, well, it's a brilliant noise,’ said the Doctor, a little defensively. ‘I love that noise.’

‘Me too,’ said Rose and the Doctor gave her a grateful smile.

‘Shall we go have a look?’ he asked and then turned to Amy. ‘Come along Pond.’

The Doctor was halfway to the door when River called out, ‘No, wait. Environment checks.’

The Doctor paused and turned mid-step, a slightly annoyed looked on his face. He looked like he was conflicting between two emotions. Rose understood that. She was also torn between two emotions. On the one hand, she was worried (and more than a little bit jealous) about how close River obviously was to the Doctor in the future, but on the other hand, she was grateful for it. River had sacrificed herself to save the Doctor (and everybody else in that Library) the last time they had met her so, as much as Rose wanted to, she just couldn’t hate the woman.

‘Oh yes, sorry,’ said the Doctor, not sounding sorry at all. ‘Quite right. Environment checks.’ He turned back around and opened the TARDIS door and stuck his head outside. ‘Nice out,’ he said once he had pulled his head back inside the ship. Rose bit her thumbnail to stop herself from smiling at that. The Doctor caught her eye and she could see the familiar twinkle return to it. He was happy that he had amused her.

‘We're somewhere in the Garn Belt,’ said River. She didn’t seem at all surprised by the Doctor’s antics. ‘There's an atmosphere. Early indications suggest that-’

‘We're on Alfava Metraxis, the seventh planet of the Dundra System,’ interrupted the Doctor. ‘Oxygen rich atmosphere, all toxins in the soft band, eleven hour day and,’ he stuck his head out of the open door again for a second, ‘chances of rain later.’

River just rolled her eyes. ‘He thinks he's so hot when he does that,’ she said to Amy.

Amy laughed at that but obviously had other things on her mind. ‘How come you can fly the TARDIS?’ she asked River.

‘Oh, I had lessons from the very best,’ said River.

The Doctor walked up and sat on the jump seat. A smug smile appeared on his face at River’s words. ‘Well, yeah,’ he said.

‘It's a shame you were busy that day,’ said River and then she winked at Rose. The Doctor’s smile fell and, in any other circumstance, Rose would have laughed. But she was still trying to process what River had just implied. Rose had taught her how to fly the TARDIS? But why would she do that? Surely if River was the Doctor’s future girlfriend/wife, Rose would no longer be in the picture? Right? Unwelcome memories of Queen Elizabeth surfaced in Rose’s mind but she pushed them away. Whatever was going to happen between the Doctor and River wouldn’t be like that, she was sure. He wouldn’t do that to her a second time. They still didn’t even know what exactly he had done the first time.

‘Right then, why did they land here?’ said River, oblivious to Rose’s inner turmoil. She started walking towards the doors.

‘They didn't land,’ said the Doctor. His smile had somewhat returned now that he knew something that River didn’t.

‘Sorry?’

‘You should've checked the Home Box. It crashed.’

River walked out of the door to see for herself. Rose was about to do the exact same thing but stopped when she noticed that the Doctor was walking in the other direction towards the console. ‘Explain,’ demanded Amy, right behind him. ‘Who is that and how did she do that museum thing?’

‘It's a long story and I don't know most of it,’ said the Doctor as he flicked a couple of switches. ‘Off we go.’

‘But we can’t leave,’ said Rose, running up to stop him. ‘You said the ship crashed. We have to help them.’

‘There were no survivors,’ said the Doctor.

‘Are you basically running away?’ said Amy and the Doctors hands stilled.

‘Yes,’ he finally admitted.

‘Why?’

‘Because she's the future… My future.’ He met Rose’s eyes for a second but quickly looked away. Almost as if he was ashamed.

‘Can you run away from that?’ asked Amy, not realising the full impact of River’s appearance.

The Doctor didn’t answer, though Rose could tell what he wanted to say. He wanted to say that, yes, he could run away from it, that he could run away from anything, but he knew that Amy was right. No one could run away from their future.

‘We can’t just leave her out there on her own,’ said Rose and this time when the Doctor looked at her, he held her gaze. She saw the fear in his eyes but she also saw the acceptance. He knew that they couldn’t abandon River. They owed her more than that.

The Doctor let out a sigh and reversed the first few steps of the dematerialisation sequence that he had previously begun. ‘Guess you get to see a planet this trip after all, Amy.’

Amy’s eyes lit up in excitement and she was the first one to move towards the doors. Rose and the Doctor followed her more slowly, each unconsciously reaching for the other’s hand and intertwining their fingers. Silently, they left the TARDIS and stepped out onto the rocky surface of the planet outside.

They hadn’t landed far from the ship; they could see it sticking out of a huge building that looked like it was carved into the cliff. All around them were small pieces of burning debris that must have flown off the ship on entry.

‘Why did it crash?’ asked Rose.

‘Not me,’ said River, though she did sound a tad worried that she may not have been right about that.

The Doctor was quick to reassure her. ‘The airlock would've sealed seconds after you blew it,’ he said. ‘According to the Home Box, the warp engines had a phase shift. No survivors.’

‘A phase shift would have to be sabotage,’ said River, briefly looking back at them. ‘I did warn them.’

‘Warn them about what?’ asked Rose.

‘Their cargo.’ She turned back to face the crash site and pulled out a portable computer device from some unseen pocket in her dress. ‘Well, at least the building was empty. Aplan temple. Unoccupied for centuries.’

There was a moment or two of silence before Amy stepped up to stand beside the Doctor. ‘Aren't you going to introduce us?’ she asked him.

The Doctor let out a long sigh before he complied.

‘Amy Pond, Professor River Song.’

River turned back around, a big smile on her face. ‘Oh, I'm going to be a Professor some day, am I?’ she asked and the Doctor cringed as he realised his mistake. ‘How exciting.’ She let out a small laugh at the Doctor’s expression and turned back and started fiddling with the device in her hands. ‘Spoilers.’

‘Yeah, but who is she and how did she do that?’ asked Amy, still not satisfied. ‘She just left you a note in a museum.’

It was River who answered her. ‘Two things always guaranteed to show up in a museum,’ she said, not turning around. ‘The Home Box of category four starliner and sooner or later, him. It's how he keeps score.’ She turned to face Rose. ‘It's hilarious, isn't it?’

Rose smiled despite herself, remembering how the Doctor had been in the museum not an hour ago.

The Doctor however, was less amused. ‘I'm nobody's taxi service,’ he told River. ‘I'm not going to be there to catch you every time you feel like jumping out of a space ship.’

River laughed again. ‘And you are so wrong. There's one survivor. There's a thing in the belly of that ship that can't ever die.’ There was a pause while everyone looked at River. Her smile grew. ‘Now he's listening.’ She turned and walked ahead a little, now talking into the device that must have been some sort of communicator. ‘You lot in orbit yet? Yeah, I saw it land. I'm at the crash site. Try and home in on my signal.’

Not for the first time in the last few minutes, Rose wondered what River was doing here. What was the ship’s cargo that she had warned the crew about? It must be something important and/or dangerous if she needed a whole team to retrieve it. A team that didn’t seem to be receiving River’s signal. ‘Doctor, can you sonic me?’ she shouted. ‘I need to boost the signal so we can use it as a beacon.’

With a distinct lack of enthusiasm, the Doctor did as she had asked and River half-curtseyed in thanks.

‘Ooo, Doctor, you sonicked her,’ teased Amy. The Doctor glared at her for a minute before turning back to face River who was just now walking back to them.

‘We have a minute,’ she said once she had reached them. ‘Shall we?’ She pulled out a familiar diary and started flicking through the pages. ‘Where are we up to? Have we done the Bone Meadows?’

‘What's the book?’ asked Amy.

‘Her diary,’ answered the Doctor and Rose together.

‘Our diary,’ corrected River.

‘She’s from the future – our personal future,’ explained Rose at Amy’s confused look. ‘We seem to be meeting in the wrong order.’

‘More fun that way,’ said River, smiling at Rose. Rose tried her best to smile back but she could tell from the disappointment that flashed in River’s eyes that she hadn’t been very convincing. Just who was this woman? There was so much evidence to suggest that she was the Doctor’s future wife but she seemed to know Rose as well. More than that, she acted like they were friends. Maybe they were friends in the future – or in River’s present? Rose wasn’t sure how she felt about that but she did know that she would have to try and be a bit more accommodating around River. It wasn’t her fault that Rose and the Doctor didn’t know her yet.

Four small tornadoes appeared a few feet in front of them, bringing Rose out of her thoughts. The wind and dust settled and now four soldiers stood where the tornadoes had been. They must have used some sort of teleportation device.

‘You promised me an army, Doctor Song,’ said the eldest of the soldiers, stepping forward.

‘No, I promised you the equivalent of an army,’ said River. ‘This is the Doctor and Rose Tyler.’

‘Father Octavian,’ the man introduced himself. ‘Bishop, second class. Twenty clerics at my command. The troops are already in the drop ship and landing shortly. Doctor Song was helping us with a covert investigation. Has Doctor Song explained what we're dealing with?’

River turned back to face the Doctor, Rose and Amy.

‘What do you know of the Weeping Angels?’


	13. The Time of Angels Part Two

It had taken a few hours for the soldiers (who were also part of a church) to set up their base and by the time everything was ready, night had fallen. The reinforcements that Father Octavian had mentioned had landed on the planet in with supplies and now the base was busy with activity. The extra support should have made the Doctor feel better but he still felt uneasy. As if things weren’t complicated enough with River showing up again, now he had to deal with a Weeping Angel as well. And this time he didn’t have a folder with all the answers to help him if the Angel did touch him.

‘The Angel, as far as we know, is still trapped in the ship,’ explained Father Octavian and the Doctor brought his focus back to the man in front of him. ‘Our mission is to get inside and neutralise it. We can't get through up top; we'd be too close to the drives. According to this,’ he held up a device like the one River had been using as a communicator and the Doctor glanced at the screen that showed a 3D map of tunnels, ‘behind the cliff face there's a network of catacombs leading right up to the temple. We can blow through the base of the cliffs, get into the entrance chamber, then make our way up.’

‘Oh, good,’ said the Doctor.

‘Good, sir?’ asked Father Octavian, confused.

The Doctor nodded. ‘Catacombs. Probably dark ones. Dark catacombs. Great.’

Octavian seemed to have caught on to the Doctor’s sarcasm. ‘Technically, I think it's called a maze of the dead.’

‘You can stop any time you like.’

Another soldier called out to Father Octavian and he excused himself to see what the problem was. Once he had gone, Amy leaned in to talk to the Doctor. ‘You're letting people call you sir,’ she said. ‘You never do that. So, whatever a Weeping Angel is, it's really bad, yeah?’

Really bad didn’t even cover it. These things were near on impossible to escape from and killing them was even harder.

‘A Weeping Angel, Amy, is the deadliest, most powerful, most malevolent life form evolution has ever produced,’ the Doctor told her, thinking that he should have gone with his first instinct and sent her back to stay in the TARDIS, ‘and right now one of them is trapped inside that wreckage and I'm supposed to climb in after it with a screwdriver and a torch, and assuming I survive the radiation long enough and assuming the whole ship doesn't explode in my face, do something incredibly clever which I haven't actually thought of yet. That's my day. That's what I'm up to. Any questions?’

‘Is River Song your wife?’

The Doctor paled. He hadn’t wanted her to ask that question. Mainly because he didn’t know the answer to it. And he didn’t particularly want to know the answer to it either.

‘Because she's someone from your future,’ continued Amy, ‘and the way she talks to you, I've never seen anyone do that, not even Rose. She's kind of like, you know, heel, boy. She's Mrs Doctor from the future, isn't she? Is she going to be your wife one day?’

The Doctor glanced to where Rose was talking to one of the younger soldiers; she had wanted to find out a bit more about this mission and had figured the newer recruits would be more open. Watching the way she smiled warmly and encouragingly at the young man, the Doctor realised that Amy was right about one thing, Rose definitely was a lot different from River. He had seen proof that River was a good woman and willing to go to great lengths to protect those she cared about, but Rose was… well, she was just Rose, and the Doctor knew with absolutely certainty which one he would prefer as a wife.

The Doctor realised that he still hadn’t answered Amy but when he turned back to do just that, the sound of River calling for him cut him off. They both turned to see River, now dressed in combat fatigues, beckoning them to join her. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Rose excuse herself from her conversation with the soldier and start to walk over to River. River called out to Father Octavian as well and the Doctor decided that whatever River wanted, it was probably important.

‘Why do they call him Father?’ asked Amy as they walked towards the small capsule that the soldiers had brought down to the planet.

‘He's their Bishop, they're his Clerics,’ explained the Doctor. ‘It's the fifty first Century. The Church has moved on.’

‘I’ll say,’ said Rose as she caught up to them.

‘Find out anything else about what this lot are up to?’ the Doctor asked her. He was itching to take her hand in his and run starlight back to the TARDIS but he refrained himself.

Rose shrugged. ‘Not much. Mostly the same as what River said, really.’

Together, they walked into the small capsule that was the Church's drop ship. It was a little crowded with the five of them in there but the Doctor was happy with the excuse to be closer to Rose. On the far wall of the room was a TV screen which showed a black and white image of a Weeping Angel hiding its face. There was a timer in the bottom corner of the screen, telling the Doctor that this was just a recording from the ship’s security footage. The same four seconds played over and over again.

‘What do you think?’ asked River. ‘It's from the security cameras in the Byzantium vault. I ripped it when I was on board. Sorry about the quality. It's four seconds. I've put it on loop.’

‘Definitely a Weeping Angel, then,’ said Rose.

‘You've encountered the Angels before?’ asked Father Octavian.

Rose nodded. ‘Just the once. On Earth. And we only got out of that one because we had a little help.’

‘And those were just scavengers,’ added the Doctor, ‘barely surviving.’

How the hell was he going to stop this one?

‘But it's just a statue,’ said Amy.

‘It's a statue when you see it,’ said River.

‘Where did it come from?’ asked the Doctor.

‘Bob said that it was owned by some sort of collector,’ said Rose.

‘Bob?’

‘The Cleric I was talking to.’

‘It was pulled from the ruins of Razbahan, end of last century,’ explained River. ‘It's been in private hands ever since. Dormant all that time.’

The Doctor eyed the security footage warily. ‘There's a difference between dormant and patient.’

‘What's that mean, it's a statue when you see it?’ asked Amy.

‘The can’t move when any living thing is looking at them,’ explained Rose. ‘It’s a quantum lock.’ The last two words sounded a bit unsure and she looked to the Doctor for confirmation that she had got the terminology right.

The Doctor nodded and flashed her a quick smile. ‘Quantum lock,’ he agreed. ‘In the sight of any living creature the Angels literally cease to exist. They're just stone. The ultimate defence mechanism.’

‘What, being a stone?’ asked Amy.

‘Being a stone until you turn your back.’

Well, the sooner they got on with this, the sooner it would be over. And then they could leave. The Doctor led the way out of the drop ship and back into the camp. ‘The hyperdrive would've split on impact,’ he said. ‘That whole ship's going to be flooded with drive burn radiation, cracked electrons, gravity storms. Deadly to almost any living thing.’

‘Deadly to an Angel?’ asked Father Octavian, a hint of hope breaking through his professional demeanour.

‘Dinner to an Angel,’ said the Doctor, a bit guilty at taking that hope away. ‘The longer we leave it there, the stronger it will grow. Who built that temple? Are they still around?’

‘The Aplans,’ answered River. ‘Indigenous life form. They died out four hundred years ago.’

‘Two hundred years later,’ continued Father Octavian, ‘the planet was terraformed. Currently there are six billion human colonists.’

Of course there were.

‘Whoo! You lot, you're everywhere,’ said the Doctor. ‘You're like rabbits. I'll never get done saving you.’ Rose’s lips twitched up in a smile and the Doctor’s mood improved a little. If it made Rose smile, he could keep up this positive approach to the situation rather than letting his unease get to him.

‘Sir, if there is a clear and present danger to the local population…’ started Father Octavian.

‘Big radioactive spaceship with a nearly impossible to kill Weeping Angel inside? Yeah I think there might be,’ said Rose. ‘So what are we waiting for?’

Father Octavian gave her a nod and went to check on how the Clerics were getting on with the explosives. ‘Doctor Song, with me,’ he said as he walked away.

‘Two minutes,’ shouted River as she ran back the way they had just came. ‘Sweetie, I need you.’

‘Sweetie?’ asked the Doctor before he realised that meant him. Without even thinking about it, he grabbed Rose’s hand and started to follow River. Rose got the hint and increased her stride to match his. He may be helping River but it was Rose who he wanted by his side. He vaguely heard Amy calling out from the doorway to the drop ship but he just couldn’t focus. He sent her an apologetic look and she disappeared into the room.

‘I found this,’ said River once he and Rose had reached her. It was a book. A very old book by the looks of it. ‘Definitive work on the Angels. Well, the only one. Written by a madman. It's barely readable, but I've marked a few passages.’

The Doctor took the book and skimmed through it, reading the whole thing in a matter of seconds. ‘Not bad,’ he said. ‘Bit slow in the middle. No. No, hang on. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.’ He held the book up to take a good sniff of it. Something was odd about this book.

‘Doctor Song?’ came Amy’s voice. She had her head peeking out of the doorway to the drop ship. ‘Did you have more than one clip of the Angel?’

‘No, just the four seconds,’ replied River. Amy gave a confused look and went back inside.

‘This book is wrong,’ said the Doctor. ‘What's wrong with this book? It's wrong.’

‘At least it’s something,’ said Rose. ‘I remember the last time we met the Weeping Angels. I spent hours in the TARDIS library trying to find something. And even then I couldn’t be sure I was looking at the right thing because there were no pictures.’

‘Pictures!’ said the Doctor. Oh, his girlfriend was so brilliant he could kiss her. So he did. Well, on the forehead anyway. They were in public after all. ‘That’s it. Why aren't there pictures?’ He started flicking through the book again. ‘This whole book, it's a warning about the Weeping Angels, so why no pictures? Why not show us what to look out for?’

‘There was a bit about images,’ said River. ‘What was that?’

‘Yes. Hang on.’ He found the right passage and began to read. ‘That which holds the image of an Angel becomes itself an angel.’

That didn’t sound very comforting.

‘What does that mean?’ asked River. ‘An image of an Angel becomes itself an Angel.’

Suddenly Amy’s voice echoed across the camp. ‘Doctor! It's in the room!’

‘Oh my God, the security footage,’ said Rose, already running for the now closed door of the capsule. ‘It’s an image of an Angel. It’s gonna become a real one.’ She tried to open the door but it remained firmly shut. ‘Amy, what’s happening?’ she asked through the door.

The Doctor and River reached the door and Rose moved out the way so that the Doctor could try the door himself. When it didn’t budge for him either, he started sonicking the keypad.

‘It's coming out of the television,’ said Amy, sounding a bit panicked. ‘The Angel is here.’

‘Don't take your eyes off it,’ said the Doctor, trying not to let his own panic show. The sonic wasn’t working. ‘Keep looking. It can't move if you're looking.’

‘Why isn’t the sonic working?’ asked River, obviously just as worried about Amy as he was.

‘Deadlocked.’

‘There is no deadlock.’

‘It must be the Angel,’ said Rose. ‘But how’s it doing that?’

‘I don’t know,’ growled the Doctor as he whacked the sonic against his hand as if that would make a difference. ‘But how isn’t important right now. We have to get Amy out of there. Or…’ He suddenly got an idea. Without wasting time on explaining, he ripped open a panel on the capsule wall and started working on the wires within. ‘Don't blink, Amy,’ he shouted. ‘Don't even blink.’

‘What are you doing?’ asked River.

‘Cutting the power. It's using the screen, I'm turning the screen off.’ But that didn’t seem to work ether. He let out a growl of frustration. ‘No good, it's deadlocked the whole system.’

‘Help me!’ shouted Amy from inside.

‘We’re trying, Amy,’ said Rose. ‘But the Angel's done something and we can’t cut the power to the screen. Can you turn it off from in there?’

‘I already tried.’

‘Try again,’ said the Doctor. ‘But don't take your eyes off the Angel.’

‘I'm not.’

She sounded so scared. The Doctor doubled his efforts to try and get her out while Rose stayed by the door, giving Amy words of encouragement. River, meanwhile had grabbed a blowtorch and was trying to use it to cut through the metal of the ship's wall.

‘It just keeps switching back on,’ said Amy. She was obviously heading his advice and trying to turn the screen off.

‘Yeah, it's the Angel,’ said the Doctor, once again working on the wires.

‘But it's just a recording.’

‘Anything that takes the image of an Angel is an Angel.’ He turned to River. ‘Any luck?’

River shook her head. ‘It's not even warm.’

‘Doctor, what are we gonna do?’ asked Rose, worriedly. ‘She’s trapped in there.’

Before the Doctor could answer, Amy’s scared voice came from inside the room. ‘Doctor, what's it going to do to me?’ she asked.

The Doctor closed his eyes and gathered what little strength he had. He had to tell her the truth. ‘The Angels usually send their victims back in time,’ he told her. ‘Just keep looking at it. Don't stop looking.’

‘So I won’t die, yeah?’ asked Amy, sounding a little bit hopeful. ‘You’ll be able to find me.’

The Doctor let out a sigh. He didn’t think he could answer this one. So instead, he ran to get the book that River had shown him. Maybe there was something useful, something he had missed. He flicked through the book as he ran back to the capsule. Amy was still yelling at him to answer her.

And then the Doctor found something. But it wasn’t good. ‘Amy, not the eyes,’ he said desperately. ‘Look at the Angel but don't look at the eyes.’

‘Why?’ asked Amy, scared and confused.

‘Why not the eyes?’ asked Rose, leaning over to look at the book in the Doctor’s hand. River had also abandoned her attempts at cutting through the door and came to stand on his other side.

‘The eyes are not the windows of the soul,’ the Doctor read from the book. ‘They are the doors. Beware what may enter there.’

‘Sounds somewhat ominous,’ said Rose.

‘Doctor, what did you say?’ asked Amy from inside the ship.

‘Don't look at the eyes!’ shouted the Doctor, Rose and River together.

‘No, about images. What did you say about images?’

‘Whatever holds the image of an Angel, is an Angel,’ answered River.

The room inside the drop ship went quiet for a moment. The Doctor could just hear Amy muttering something to herself which was the only reason he wasn’t trying to bash the door down with his fists.

After a minute, it got too much for Rose and she tried the door again. ‘Amy? Are you all…’ Amazingly, the door opened. The three of them ran inside. ‘… right?’ Amy was standing in the middle of the room with a remote control in her hand. The TV screen that had previously shown the Weeping Angel was now blank.

‘I froze it,’ she explained. ‘There was a sort of blip on the tape and I froze it on the blip. It wasn't the image of an Angel any more. That was good, yeah? It was, wasn't it? That was pretty good.’

‘That was amazing,’ agreed River, smiling widely.

‘Oh, it was better than amazing,’ said the Doctor, matching River’s smile. He gave Amy a quick hug and then moved to inspect the TV screen (and pull the plug out). Out of the corner of his eye he saw River and Rose both hug Amy too as they continued to congratulate her.

‘So it was here?’ asked River. Now that the metaphorical high-fiving was done, it was back to business. ‘That was the Angel?’

‘That was a projection of the Angel,’ said the Doctor. ‘It's reaching out, getting a good look at us.’ He turned around to look at them, well aware of how ominous he was being. ‘It’s no longer dormant.’


	14. The Time of Angels Part Three

Father Octavian and his Clerics had detonated their explosives and had created an opening into the mountain’s catacombs. Once inside, they had used a gravity globe to illuminate the chamber and the Doctor had almost groaned at what he had seen. It was nothing more than he had been expecting but still, the sight of all the petrified corpses did not help lighten his mood at all. The dead Aplans were now nothing but stone and they were all standing upright. The perfect hiding place for a Weeping Angel.

Father Octavian had sent a couple of Clerics to check out a side chamber that they had found and River was busy giving Amy an injection to help with the radiation so the Doctor decided that this was his best chance to talk to Rose. It had been hours since River had shown up in their lives again and he still had very little idea of how she was handling it.

‘Are you all right?’ he asked her, walking up to stand beside her.

‘Well, we’re in a maze of the dead, searching for one of the most indestructible beings in the universe…’ she said.

‘Well, yes, there is that,’ admitted the Doctor and Rose gave him the tiniest hint of a smile. ‘But I was referring more to River.’

Rose’s smile disappeared and she took a breath, as if to gather her resolve. ‘I’m not exactly thrilled to see her again,’ she said, slowly. ‘But she seems like a good person. She’s smart, capable… more than a bit cheeky.’ Her smile returned for the briefest of moments before falling again. ‘She seems like a good match for you.’

‘But I don’t want her,’ said the Doctor, turning to face her properly. ‘I want you.’

Rose smiled properly this time, but there was still an underlying sadness in her eyes. ‘I know you do,’ she said. ‘But when I’m gone, however that may happen, I’m glad to know that you’ll have someone. I don’t ever want you to be alone, Doctor.’

The sincerity in her eyes almost broke him. He opened his mouth to say something, not even sure of what exactly he could say to express how much he was in love with this amazing woman in front of him, but he was interrupted by River and Amy waking up to them. ‘Your turn, Sweetie,’ River told Rose, holding up syringe to give her an injection to help fight the effects of the radiation. ‘I know your DNA is a bit different and you may be fine without it but best not to risk it. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt a bit.’

‘I have a feeling you’re lying about that last part,’ said Rose, rolling up her sleeve, ‘but what the hell?’ She held her arm out and River placed the device against her skin. Rose flinched a bit at the injection and her face screwed up in pain for a second but she made no noise of discomfort.

Once she was finished, River rolled her sleeve back down for her. ‘See? That wasn’t so bad, was it?’

Rose rubbed her arm through her jacket sleeve but she still managed to force a smile. ‘As long as I only need the one.’

River laughed at that. ‘Just the one, I swear.’

Suddenly, gunfire echoed across the chamber, causing the four of them to startle. The Doctor instinctively moved closer to Rose so he could shield her but there was no need. The shots had been fired by one of the Clerics who had shot one of the Aplan statues. The Doctor recognised him as the one who Rose had been talking to back at the camp. What did she say his name was? Bob, wasn’t it?

‘Sorry, sorry,’ said Bob. He sounded terrified. ‘I thought. I thought it looked at me.’

‘We know what the Angel looks like,’ said Father Octavian, sternly. ‘Is that the Angel?’

Bob shook his head. ‘No, sir.’

‘No, sir, it is not,' agreed Octavian. 'According to the Doctor, we are facing an enemy of unknowable power and infinite evil, so it would be good, it would be very good, if we could all remain calm in the presence of decor.’

Not liking Father Octavian’s tone, the Doctor strode over to have a word. He turned to face the young Cleric. ‘What's your name?’ he asked, kindly. ‘It was Bob, wasn’t it?’

‘Yes, sir.’

The Doctor smiled. ‘Ah, that's a great name. I love Bob.’

‘It's a Sacred Name,’ said Father Octavian. ‘We all have Sacred Names. They're given to us in the service of the Church.’

‘Sacred Bob. More like Scared Bob now, eh?’ said the Doctor, turning back to face Bob with a comforting smile.

Bob nodded, a little shakily. ‘Yes, sir.’

The Doctor clapped him on the shoulder. ‘Ah, good. Scared keeps you fast. Anyone in this room who isn't scared is a moron.’ He tried his hardest to refrain from shooting a glare in Father Octavian’s direction and only just managed to succeed. ‘Carry on.’

Bob looked a bit calmer now and a bit more confident and the Doctor was glad that his words had helped the man. The loving smile he got from Rose was just an added bonus.

\----

Sacred Bob had stayed behind to help another two Clerics fully check out the chamber they had first entered the catacombs through. Once that was done, they were to stand guard in case the Angel decided to come at the group from below.

About four levels up from them, the rest of the team were making there way towards to the crashed spaceship. There were only two more levels to go and so far their journey had been pretty uneventful. The Doctor was more than a little surprised at that and it made him more than a little nervous. Just how long would their luck hold out?

‘Isn't there a chance this lot's just going to collapse?’ asked Amy, looking cautiously up at the ceiling. ‘There's a whole ship up there.’

‘Incredible builders, the Aplans,’ said River and the Doctor couldn’t help but agree with her.

‘Had dinner with their Chief Architect once,’ he said. ‘Two heads are better than one.’

‘What, you mean you helped him?’ asked Amy.

‘No, I mean he had two heads.’ He turned to River. ‘That book, the very end, what did it say?’

‘Hang on, two heads?’ asked Rose as River started flicking through the pages of the book.

The Doctor was surprised at her confusion. ‘Not like we haven’t met stranger beings before,’ he said, turning to look at her. River had found the passage of the book that he had asked about and had begun to read but the Doctor wasn’t listening. He was more focussed on the worried look that Rose had on her face.

‘It’s not that,’ said Rose, looking around the chamber. ‘If the Aplans had two heads… then why do these statues only have one?'

The Doctor turned to face the statues that were surrounding them. ‘Oh,’ said River as she too realised the implication of Rose’s words.

‘What is it?’ asked Amy, obviously alarmed at their sudden fearful manner. ‘Why do the Aplan statues only have one head each?’

‘Because they’re not Aplan statues,’ said the Doctor.

‘How could we have not noticed that?’ asked River, voicing exactly what the Doctor had just been thinking.

‘Low level perception filter,’ said the Doctor, ‘or maybe we're thick.’ Then he snapped back into action mode. He had to be sure that he was right. Deep down he knew with absolute certainty that he was, but there was still that tiny glimmer of hope that just this once, he would be wrong. ‘Nobody move,’ he told the rest of the group. ‘Everyone stay exactly where they are. Bishop, I am truly sorry. I've made a mistake and we are all in terrible danger.’

He took a quick look round and spotted a small alcove at the side of the cavern. It was there best option to set up a defensive position should they need it. ‘Everyone, over there,’ he said, nodding his head in the direction of the alcove. ‘Just move. Don't ask questions, don't speak.’

Once they had all done as he had told them, he gave his next instruction – the one that would reveal how much more danger they were all in. ‘Okay, I want you all to switch off your torches,’ he said.

‘Sir?’ asked one of the Clerics.

‘Just do it.’

None of the others argued with his stern tone and one by one, they turned their torches off until the only light in the cavern was coming from the Doctor’s torch. He currently had it focused one of the statues that was facing away from them. ‘Okay. I'm going to turn off this one too,’ he said, trying to keep his voice as calm as possible even though his hearts were beating wildly in his chest, ‘just for a moment.’

‘Are you sure about this?’ asked River.

‘No,' admitted the Doctor and then he turned off his torch. Less than a second later, he turned it back on and almost everyone in the group jumped as they saw that the statue was now facing them.

‘Oh, my God. They've moved,’ said Amy.

Everybody turned their torches back on and instinctively picked a statue each to keep an eye on. The Doctor ran back down the passage that they had just come from. There were definitely more statues there than there had been a few minutes ago. There was even one that looked like it had been crawling along the ground. ‘They're Angels,’ he said. ‘All of them.’ He backed away from the statues as fast as he could until he was back in the main cavern. ‘Every statue in this Maze, every single one, is a Weeping Angel. They're coming after us.'

‘But they don’t look like Angels,’ said Rose. ‘What happened to them?’

‘They’re dying, probably been starving away down here for centuries. River, the Aplans, what happened? How did they die out?’

‘Nobody knows,’ answered River, still looking at the statues.

‘Well, I think we do,’ said Amy.

‘But how come they’re moving now?’ asked Rose. ‘I mean, I know these Angels aren’t exactly fast but the ones we saw when first broke through would have had plenty of chances?’

‘Good question,’ said the Doctor, desperately think of an answer. It only took him a few seconds to think of one. ‘The radiation! From the ship. It must be feeding them somehow, making them stronger. The Angels closest to the ship are getting the power first and the others stuck below just have to wait their turn.’ And then another thought hit him. River had said that the ship – the Byzantium – had crashed because of sabotage. ‘The crash of the Byzantium wasn't an accident; it was a rescue mission for the Angels. We're in the middle of an army, and it's waking up.’

‘We need to get out of here fast,’ said River.

Father Octavian raised his communicator to his mouth without looking away from the statues. ‘Bob, Angelo, Christian, come in, please,’ he said with urgency. ‘Any of you, come in.’

For a couple of seconds, there was no reply and the Doctor worried that the three Clerics they had left behind had been caught by the Angels, but then Bob’s voice crackled through the communicator and the Doctor let out a sigh of relief.

‘It's Bob, sir. Sorry, sir.’

‘Bob, are Angelo and Christian with you?’ asked Father Octavian. ‘All the statues are active. I repeat, all the statues are active.’

‘I know, sir. Angelo and Christian are dead, sir. The statues killed them, sir.’

The Doctor’s relieved smile fell and in a matter of seconds, he had gone from sadness to guilt and then had finally settled on angry determination. Without warning, he snatched the communicator out of Father Octavian’s hand. The Bishop made protest but the Doctor ignored him.

‘Bob,’ he said into the communicator. ‘Sacred Bob, it's me, the Doctor. Where are you now?’ Father Octavian once again tried to regain control of the conversation between he and his Cleric but the Doctor waved him away (maybe with a but too much rudeness but he didn’t really care about that at the moment).

‘I'm on my way up to you, sir,’ said Bob. ‘I'm homing in on your signal.’

The Doctor allowed himself to smile again. ‘Ah, well done, Bob. Scared keeps you fast. Told you, didn't I. Your friends, Bob. What did the Angel do to them?’

‘Snapped their necks, sir.’

Once again, the Doctor’s smile dropped, but this time it was replaced by a frown of confusion. ‘That's odd. That's not how the Angels kill you. They displace you in time. Unless they needed the bodies for something.’

‘Bob, did you check their data packs for vital signs?’ asked Father Octavian, taking the communicator back from the Doctor. ‘We may be able to initiate a rescue plan.’

‘Oh, don't be an idiot,’ said the Doctor, once again wrenching the communicator out of Octavian’s hands. ‘The Angels don't leave you alive.’ He directed his attention back to Bob. ‘Bob, keep running. But tell me, how did you escape?’

Bob’s next words sent a shiver down the Doctor’s spine.

‘I didn't escape, sir. The Angel killed me, too.’

‘What do you mean, the Angel killed you, too?’ he asked.

‘Snapped my neck, sir. Wasn't as painless as I expected, but it was pretty quick, so that was something.’

‘If you're dead, how can I be talking to you?’

‘You're not talking to me, sir. The Angel has no voice. It stripped my cerebral cortex from my body and re-animated a version of my consciousness to communicate with you. Sorry about the confusion.’

And there was that familiar feeling of rage filling the Doctor’s mind and heart but he kept it at bay. ‘So when you say you're on your way up to us…’ he said.

‘It's the Angel that's coming, sir, yes,’ said the Angel. ‘No way out.’

‘Then we get out through the wreckage,’ said Father Octavian, once again taking command (or at least, thinking he was). ‘Go! Go, go, go. All of you run.’

Everybody quickly started moving backwards towards where they knew the closest part of the Byzantium was until there was only the Doctor, Rose and Father Octavian in the chamber. He noticed that Rose was keeping an eye on the entrance so he figured it was safe to turn to face Father Octavian properly for what he had to say. He had been rather rude and disrespectful to him a moment ago and he needed to apologise for that. ‘I’m sorry I called you an idiot,’ he said, ‘but there's no way we could have rescued your men.’

‘I know that, sir,’ said Father Octavian though he didn’t look like he was very accepting of the Doctor’s apology. ‘And when you've flown away in your little blue box, I'll explain that to their families.’

Ouch. That was a low blow. Though, not entirely uncalled for.

The Doctor couldn’t think of anything to say to that so instead he just watched Father Octavian walk away to join the others. Once he had gone, the Doctor raised the communicator to his mouth again. ‘Angel Bob. Which Angel am I talking to?’ he asked. ‘The one from the ship?’

‘Yes, sir,’ answered Angel Bob. ‘And the other Angels are still restoring.’

‘Ah, so the Angel is not in the wreckage. Thank you.’

Happy for at least some good news, he grabbed Rose’s hand and ran out the back entrance to the cavern that Father Octavian had just retreated through. ‘Don't wait for me. Go, run,’ he said as they passed Amy in the tunnel but then he suddenly stopped as he realised how terrified she looked. She was slightly hunched over and was gripping the rock beside her like her life depended on it. ‘Amy, what’s wrong?’ he asked. ‘Come on, we have to go.’

‘I can't,’ said Amy.

‘Why not?’

‘Look at it. Look at my hand,’ said Amy angrily. ‘It's stone.’

The Doctor looked at Amy’s hand that was clutching the rock. It was most definitely not made of stone.

‘Amy, you’re hand’s fine,’ said Rose, laying her own hand on Amy’s and trying to move it. But Amy’s hand wouldn’t budge. For some reason Amy truly believed her hand was made of stone.

‘You looked into the eyes of an Angel, didn't you?’ asked the Doctor. It was the only explanation.

‘I couldn't stop myself,’ said Amy. There was no more anger in her voice. Just fear. ‘I tried.’

‘Rose, go help the others,’ said the Doctor, not taking his eyes away from the entrance of the cavern, lest any Angels appear.

‘I can’t leave you both here,’ protested Rose as he knew she would but he had to get her to leave. Convincing Amy that her hand was fine could be tricky and there was no sense wasting all three of their lives if it didn’t work. He needed Rose safe.

‘Rose, please. Me and Amy will be fine. We’re protected here but the others may not be. They’ll need all the eyes they can get.’ He didn’t have to look at her to be able to see the stubborn look on her face. But the fact that she hadn’t replied yet told the Doctor that he had won.

‘Okay,’ she finally said, sounding not at all happy about it. ‘But don’t be long.’

‘Promise,’ said the Doctor and he breathed a sigh of relief when he heard Rose’s footsteps fade away as she ran to catch up to the others.

Now that Rose was safe (well as safe as she could be considering the current situation), the Doctor refocused his attention on Amy. ‘Listen to me,’ he said softly. ‘It's messing with your head. Your hand is not made of stone.’

‘It is,’ said Amy, her anger returning. ‘Look at it.’

‘It's in your mind, I promise you. You can move that hand. You can let go.’

‘I can't, okay? I've tried and I can't. It's stone.’

The Doctor’s torch began to flicker.

‘The Angel is going to come and it's going to turn this light off,’ he said, a hint of urgency creeping into his voice, ‘and then there's nothing I can do to stop it, so do it. Concentrate. Move your hand.’

‘I can't.’

‘Then we're both going to die.’

‘You're not going to die,’ said Amy. She still sounded scared but she also sounded very sure of herself.

‘They'll kill the lights,’ said the Doctor, trying to make her understand that she had to move her hand.

‘You've got to go,’ said Amy. ‘You know you have. You've got all that stuff with River and that's all got to happen. You know you can't die here.’

The Doctor frowned a little at the mention of River’s name instead of Rose’s but he quickly masked it. Not that Amy would've seen it anyway. The Angels had just appeared at the cavern’s entrance and both her and the Doctor had their eyes fixed squarely on them.

‘Time can be re-written. It doesn't work like that,’ said the Doctor. They had to get away. Now. ‘Keep your eyes on the Angels. Don't blink.’

‘Run,’ said Amy, obviously getting annoyed with his stubbornness.

The Doctor’s lips quirked up into a little bit of a smile at her fiery attitude. ‘You see, I'm not going,’ he said as calmly as he could. ‘I'm not leaving you here.’

‘I don't need you to die for me, Doctor. Do I look that clingy?’

‘You can move your hand,’ the Doctor tried again.

‘It's stone,’ repeated Amy.

‘It's not stone.’

‘You've got to go. Those people up there will die without you. If you stay here with me, you'll have as good as killed them.’

The Doctor’s heart almost broke at her selfless words and he pressed his forehead against hers. ‘Amy Pond, you are magnificent, and I'm sorry.’

‘It's okay,’ said Amy. ‘I understand. You've got to leave me.’

‘Oh, no, I'm not leaving you, never,’ said the Doctor. ‘I'm sorry about this.’

As quick as he could, he leant down and bit her hand.

\----

By the time Rose reached the others, they had already set up a defensive position around the chamber they were in and used a gravity globe to give them extra light.

And about ten feet above the gravity globe, was the Byzantium.

‘How do we get up there then?’ asked Rose, walking up to stand beside River.

‘Working on it,’ said River, giving the ship a quick glance.

‘Okay good. How far have you gotten?’

‘You know the part where you get an amazing idea that will solve the problem in record time?’

‘Yeah,’ said Rose, hopefully.

‘Well, we’re on the part just before that one.’

River looked like she was about to laugh - like she had just referenced some kind of inside joke - but it died on her lips when she saw that Rose wasn’t laughing too. ‘It’s still early for you and the Doctor, isn’t it?’ she said, her voice softer now. ‘How many times have you met me?’

‘Just the once,’ answered Rose. ‘Sorry,’ she added as the hurt look that she had seen earlier returned to River’s face.

But River quickly masked it and replaced it with a forced smile. ‘No matter. Life with time travellers; never easy.’

There was an awkward silence before Rose decided that there was something that she really needed to say to River.

‘Thank you.’

River looked back to face her. ‘What for?’ she asked.

‘Last time we saw you,' Rose told her, taking care not to let any spoilers slip, 'you saved the Doctor’s life – saved everyone really – but you left in kind of a hurry and I never got to say it.’

Rose was saved from answering any questions River may have had about that by one of the Clerics (Rose was fairly certain his name was Marco) running back into the chamber. ‘The statues are advancing along all corridors,' he said. 'And, sir, my torch keeps flickering.’

‘They all do,’ said Father Octavian and Rose noticed that hers was flickering as well.

‘So does the gravity globe,’ added River.

Oh this was definitely not good.

‘It’s the Angels,’ said Rose, looking around at the entrances to the chamber. She saw something moving in one of them but let out a sigh of relief when she that it was the Doctor and Amy.

‘Right, you are, Rose,’ said the Doctor. ‘The Angels are coming and they're draining the power for themselves.’

‘Glad to see you could join us,’ said Rose with a relieved smile before she turned to Amy. ‘Are you okay now?’

‘Depends on your definition,’ said Amy with a grimace. She was rubbing her hand as if trying to wipe something off. ‘He bit me! Does he often do that? Go around biting people?’

‘Oh, it’s been known to happen,’ said Rose, trying to hide her smile and hoping she wasn’t blushing like a schoolgirl. The Doctor, however, wasn’t even trying to hide his smirk and even went so far as to wink at Rose. An action that, thankfully, Amy had missed. River hadn’t missed it though and she let out a small chuckle.

Rose was starting to think that River was either he least jealous person in the entire universe, or perhaps she wasn't the Doctor's future wife after all. The way she was treating Rose wasn't exactly how one would usually treat someone who was in a relationship with their husband.

But then how had she known his name?

Rose shook those thought away and stored them for later. She had more important things to focus on at the moment.

‘So if they drain the light, we won’t be able to see them, which means we can’t stay here,’ said River, listing said important things. As if to prove her point, Father Octavian announced that there were now two more incoming Angels. ‘Any suggestions?’ she asked the group at large.

‘The statues are advancing on all sides,’ said Father Octavian. ‘We don't have the climbing equipment to reach the Byzantium.’

‘There's no way up, no way back, no way out,’ said River. ‘No pressure, but this is usually when you have a really good idea.’ That last part was obviously directed at the Doctor.

‘There's always a way out,’ he said and Rose was reassured a little by the confidence in his voice. He had a plan, or at least, the beginnings of one.

‘Doctor?’ came Bob’s voice through the communicator. But it wasn’t Bob at all, was it? Bob was dead, murdered by the Angel that was now using his voice. ‘Can I speak to the Doctor, please?’

‘Hello, Angels,’ said the Doctor, raising the communicator to speak into it. ‘What's your problem?’

‘Your power will not last much longer,’ taunted Angel Bob, ‘and the Angels will be with you shortly. Sorry, sir.’

‘Why are you telling me this?’

‘There's something the Angels are very keen you should know before the end.’

‘Which is?’

‘I died in fear.’

Rose risked a glance at the Doctor and saw that he too was confused. ‘I'm sorry?’ he asked Angel Bob.

‘You told me my fear would keep me alive, but I died afraid, in pain and alone. You made me trust you, and when it mattered, you let me down.’

‘What are they doing?’ asked Amy.

‘They're trying to make him angry,’ answered River.

‘It’s working,’ said Rose, recognising the look on the Doctor’s face. He had The Oncoming Storm swirling in his eyes.

‘I'm sorry, sir,’ continued Angel Bob. ‘The Angels were very keen for you to know that.’

‘Well then,’ said the Doctor, squaring his shoulders, ‘the Angels have made their second mistake because I'm not going to let that pass. I'm sorry you're dead, Bob, but I swear to whatever is left of you, they will be sorrier.’

‘But you're trapped, sir, and about to die.’

‘Yeah. I'm trapped. And you know what? Speaking of traps, this trap has got a great big mistake in it. A great big, whopping mistake.’

‘What mistake, sir?’

‘Trust me?’ the Doctor asked Rose and Amy.

‘Yeah,’ answered Amy at the same time as Rose said, ‘with my life.’

The Doctor turned to River. ‘Trust me?’

‘Always,’ answered River without hesitation.

‘You lot, trust me?’ he asked the others.

At first, no one answered him but then Marco announced more incoming Angels and Father Octavian turned to the Doctor. ‘We have faith, sir,’ he said with a small nod.

‘Then give me your gun,’ said the Doctor. ‘I'm about to do something incredibly stupid and dangerous. When I do, jump!’

‘Jump where?’

‘Just jump, high as you can. Come on, leap of faith, Bishop. On my signal.’

‘What signal?’

‘You won't miss it.’

The Doctor pointed the gun at the gravity globe and Rose braced herself for what she knew was about to happen.

‘Sorry, can I ask again?’ came Angel Bob’s voice from the communicator. ‘You mentioned a mistake we made.’

‘Oh, big mistake,’ said the Doctor. ‘Huge. Didn't anyone ever tell you, there's one thing you never put in a trap? If you're smart, if you value your continued existence, if you have any plans about seeing tomorrow, there is one thing you never, ever put in a trap.’

‘And what would that be, sir?’

‘Me.’

He fired the gun.


	15. Flesh and Stone Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a really long chapter and probably could have been split into two but I just couldn't find any good places to cut it. Plus I really wanted to be able to do an episode in just two parts for a change.

Rose struggled to her feet. She had jumped on the Doctor’s signal, just like he had told them to, and now she felt like she had just been through a tumble dryer. She looked around; everyone else looked like they felt the same. Well, everyone apart from the Doctor of course.

‘Are you okay?’ River asked Amy as she helped her to her feet.

Amy nodded shakily. ‘What happened?’

‘We jumped.’

‘Jumped where?’

‘Up,’ said the Doctor. ‘Look up.’

They all did so and Rose wasn’t sure if she should be surprised or not at what she saw.

‘Where are we?’ asked Amy.

‘Exactly where we were,’ said River.

And she was right. They were still in the exact same chamber they had been in before they had jumped but now they were standing on the hull of the Byzantium and above them were the rocks of the catacombs.

And the Angels.

‘It’s not going to take them long to figure a way up here,’ said Rose.

‘No, probably not,’ agreed the Doctor. ‘Move your feet.’ That last bit was directed at Amy who obliged and moved over a few steps, albeit a little hesitantly. The Doctor sonicked the circular hatch that she had been standing on.

‘Doctor, what am I looking at?’ asked Amy, still looking up. ‘Explain.’

‘Oh, come on, Amy, think. The ship crashed with the power still on, yeah? So what else is still on?’

When Amy didn’t say anything, Rose answered for her. ‘The artificial gravity.’

‘Bingo,’ said the Doctor. ‘One good jump, and up we fell. Shot out the grav globe to give us an updraft, and here we are.’

‘Doctor, the statues. They look more like Angels now,’ said Father Octavian. And he was right. Some of them even had wings… which meant they could fly.

‘They're feeding on the radiation from the wreckage,' said the Doctor, 'draining all the power from the ship, restoring themselves. Within an hour, they'll be an army.’

‘And the good news?’ asked Rose, trying to keep an eye on as many Angels as she could.

‘I’ve got the hatch open.’

Rose let out a sigh of relief but then there was a big bang and one of the lights on the ship’s hull went out. So much for the “good news” conversation.

‘They're taking out the lights,’ said the Doctor. ‘Look at them. Look at the Angels. Into the ship, now. Quickly, all of you.’

‘How?’ asked Amy, briefly looking down at the hatch that no doubt showed a long drop down a long corridor like the one they had seen on the Home Box footage. Out of the corner of her eye, Rose saw the Doctor disappear down the hatch. It was only a second or two before he was yelling up at them.

‘It's just a corridor. The gravity orientates to the floor. Now, in here, all of you. Don't take your eyes off the Angels. Move, move, move.’

One by one, they did as he had instructed until they were all inside the ship. The Clerics with the guns were the last in and the Doctor was already working on opening the next door which had annoyingly just shut itself.

‘Not to complain or anything,’ said Rose, ‘but it kind of feels like our situation has gotten worse.’

‘Working on it,’ said the Doctor as Rose heard the whirr of his sonic screwdriver. At least he had shut the outer hatch to separate them from the Angels. ‘River, what’s on the other side of this door?’

‘It leads to the secondary flight deck.’

‘Okay. so we've basically run up the inside of a chimney, yeah?’ said Amy. ‘So what if the gravity fails?’

‘I've thought about that,’ said the Doctor.

‘And?’

‘And we'll all plunge to our deaths. See? I've thought about it.’ Rose would have rolled her eyes if she wasn’t so worried about taking them off the circular hatch at the end of the corridor. The Angels were already banging on the outside of it. ‘The security protocols are still live,’ continued the Doctor, now back to talking about the door that was blocking their escape. ‘There's no way to override them. It's impossible.’

‘How impossible?’ asked River. She was doing something to a panel on the wall.

‘Two minutes,’ answered the Doctor.

Rose reached into her pocket and took out her own sonic screwdriver. ‘Can I help?’ she asked the Doctor. 

He took the screwdriver from her hand. ‘Keep an eye on that hatch,’ he instructed. ‘The Angels will be here any minute.'

As if on cue, the hatch in question opened to reveal the cavern they had just been in. ‘The hull is breached and the power's failing,’ said Father Octavian.

The lights started to flicker and when they were steady again, there was a stone arm reaching into the open hatch.

‘Sir, incoming,’ shouted Marco.

‘Is there anyway to stop them draining the lights?’ Rose asked, hopefully. She hadn’t expected to get a positive answer but, surprisingly, the Doctor gave her one.

‘Just give us a tick,’ he said. Rose dare not look to see what he was doing.

The lights began flickering again and the Angel used the brief seconds of darkness to crawl through the hatch.

‘Clerics, keep watching them,’ said Father Octavian. Rose doubted they needed the encouragement. There were multiple Angles in the corridor now.

‘And don't look at their eyes,’ added the Doctor. ‘Anywhere else. Not the eyes. I've isolated the lighting grid. They can't drain the power now.’ And true to his word, the lights stopped flickering.

‘Good work, Doctor,’ said Father Octavian.

‘Yes. Good, good, good. Good in many ways. Good you like it so far.’

‘So far?’ asked Amy, liking those two words as much as Rose did – which was not much at all.

‘Well, there's only one way to open this door,' said the Doctor. 'I guess I'll need to route all the power in this section through the door control.'

‘I’m guessing that means the lights, too,’ said Rose. Yep, she was definitely right about not liking that “so far” bit.

‘How long for?’ asked Father Octavian.

‘Fraction of a second,’ said the Doctor. ‘Maybe longer. Maybe quite a bit longer.’

‘Maybe?’

‘I'm guessing. We're being attacked by statues in a crashed ship. There isn't a manual for this.’

‘Doctor, we lost the torches. We'll be in total darkness,’ said Amy.

‘No other way,’ said the Doctor. He looked to Father Octavian for the okay to put his plans into action.

Father Octavian turned to River. ‘Doctor Song, I've lost good Clerics today. You trust this man?’

‘I absolutely trust him,’ answered River.

‘He's not some kind of madman, then?’

There was an awkward pause.

‘I absolutely trust him.’

Father Octavian began muttering something to her – something that looked very important – but Rose didn’t catch any of it. She was distracted by the Doctor giving her back her sonic screwdriver. ‘You go through first,’ he told her. She was about to argue but he cut her off. ‘No, listen. You go first and as soon as you are on the other side. You use this, he squeezed the hand that was holding her sonic, ‘and you use it to open the next door to the secondary flight deck. We need to save all the time we can.’

Rose nodded and, without waiting for the Doctor to tell her to, she changed her sonic to the required setting. The Doctor smiled at her and it looked like he was about to kiss her but Father Octavian chose that moment to give him the go ahead to open the door.

‘Bless you. Bishop,’ the Doctor told him and he moved to his position near the door’s controls. Rose moved to her position at the other side of the door, where it would open from.

‘Combat distance, ten feet,’ Father Octavian told his Clerics. ‘As soon as the lights go down, continuous fire. Full spread over the hostiles. Do not stop firing while the lights are out. Shot gun protocol. We don't have bullets to waste.’

‘Amy, when the lights go down, the wheel should release,’ said the Doctor. ‘Spin it clockwise four turns.’

Amy nodded and turned towards said wheel on the door. ‘Ten,’ she said.

‘No, four,’ corrected the Doctor. ‘Four turns.’

‘Yeah, four. I heard you.’

That was weird but they didn’t have time to ponder it. ‘Ready!’ shouted the Doctor, pointing his sonic screwdriver at the mess that was the door’s controls.

‘On my count, then,’ said Father Octavian. ‘God be with us all. Three, two, one, fire!’ On his last word, the lights went out and the corridor filled with flashes of gunfire. The noise was deafening but Rose still heard the Doctor shouting at Amy to turn the wheel. Luckily, Amy heard him too and it wasn’t long before she had the door open enough for Rose to slip through.

She ran through the corridor and as soon she had reached the secondary flight deck, Rose wasted no time in sonicking the control panel that controlled the door. The door opened just as the others reached her and she ushered them though. The Doctor was the last one through the gap and Rose let go of the door and quickly slipped through a second before the door slid shut behind her.

A couple of seconds later, the banging started. The Angels were trying to get in.

The wheel that served as the door handle started turning and Rose took a step back in shock. Her space by the door was immediately filled by Father Octavian, who placed a small device on the door. Thankfully, the wheel stopped turning.

‘Magnetized the door,’ he explained. ‘Nothing could turn that wheel now.’

‘Yeah?’ asked the Doctor, disbelievingly. He was already at the flight deck’s controls, sonic screwdriver in hand.

And he was right to disbelieve. A second later, the door made a loud clang as the wheel began to slowly rotate.

‘Dear God!’ said Father Octavian, staring at the wheel.

‘Ah, now you're getting it,’ said the Doctor. ‘You've bought us time though. That's good. I am good with time.’

At Amy’s insistence, the other Clerics magnatized the other doors just as their wheels were starting to turn. They were now effectively trapped.

‘How long do you think it will take them to get in?’ asked Rose.

‘Five minutes, max,’ said the Doctor.

‘Nine,’ said Amy.

‘Five,’ corrected the Doctor.

‘Five. Right. Yeah.’

‘Why'd you say nine?’

Amy’s brow furrowed. ‘I didn't.’

Okay, Amy was definitely acting a bit odd but, once again, they didn’t have time to look into it further.

‘We need another way out of here,’ said River.

‘There isn't one,’ said Father Octavian.

‘Yeah, there is. Course there is,’ said the Doctor as if he had known about it the whole time (which, Rose realised, he probably had). ‘This is a galaxy class ship. Goes for years between planet falls. So, what do they need?’

‘Of course,’ said River and Rose felt a little silly for not getting it yet.

‘Food?’ she asked. ‘Water?’

‘What else?’ said the Doctor.

‘Can we get in there?’ asked Father Octavian. Obviously he had worked it out too.

‘Well, it's a sealed unit,’ answered the Doctor, ‘but they must have installed it somehow.’ He turned to the empty wall that was opposite the doors. ‘This whole wall should slide up.’ He looked down. ‘There's clamps. Release the clamps.’

‘What's through there?’ asked Amy, and Rose was a little relieved not to be the only one who wasn’t following. ‘What do they need?’

‘They need to breathe,’ said River just as the Doctor had released the clamps at the base of the wall. The wall slid up, just as he had said it would and Rose almost smacked herself for not realising what was behind it.

It was a forest. A forest that generated oxygen for the ship.

‘But that's. That's a…’ Amy stammered.

‘It's an oxygen factory,’ said River.

‘It's a forest.’

‘Yeah, it's a forest. It's an oxygen factory.’

‘And if we're lucky,’ said the Doctor, ‘an escape route.’

Amy muttered something that sounded suspiciously like ‘eight’ but Rose didn’t get a chance to question her about it before the Doctor was asking Father Octavian to scan the architecture for another exit.

‘On it,’ said Father Octavian as he moved into the forest. ‘Stay where you are until I've checked the Rad levels.’

‘But trees, on a space ship?’ said Amy still in awe.

‘Oh, more than trees,’ said the Doctor, ignoring Father Octavian’s warnings about radiation levels and jumping into the gigantic room that housed the forest. ‘Way better than trees. You're going to love this.’ He walked up to one of the “better than trees” and stripped away a piece of its bark to reveal the lights and wires underneath. ‘Treeborgs. Trees plus technology. Branches become cables become sensors on the hull. A forest sucking in starlight, breathing out air. It even rains. There's a whole mini-climate. This vault is an ecopod running right through the heart of the ship. A forest in a bottle on a space ship in a maze.’ He walked back up to them and smiled. ‘Have I impressed you yet, Amy Pond?’

Amy nodded, definitely impressed. ‘Seven.’

The Doctor’s smile vanished. ‘Seven?’

‘Sorry, what?’ asked Amy, confused.

‘You said seven.’

‘No. I didn't.’

‘Yes, you did,’ said River.

‘And you said eight before. And nine before that,’ said Rose. ‘You’re counting down.’

Amy still looked confused. ‘Counting down to what?’ she asked.

Before anyone could answer (not that any of them _had_ an answer), Father Octavian returned. ‘Doctor, there's an exit, far end of the ship, into the Primary Flight Deck.’

‘Oh, good,’ said the Doctor finally looking away from Amy. Rose recognised the concern in his eyes. ‘That's where we need to go.’

Father Octavian started plotting a safe course for them and Rose was just about to bring up Amy’s counting again when another voice spoke up. But it wasn’t from anyone in the room.

‘Doctor?’ asked the voice through the communicator that was still in the Doctor’s jacket pocket. He fished it out and the voice got louder. ‘Excuse me? Hello, Doctor? Angel Bob here, sir.’

The Doctor jogged across the room and plonked himself in the seat in front of the flight deck’s controls, casual as ever. Of course, Rose knew this was just for show. ‘Ah. There you are, Angel Bob,’ he said into the communicator. ‘How's life? Sorry, bad subject.’ The Angels had toyed with him long enough, now it was his turn.

Unfortunately, Angel Bob didn’t agree. ‘The Angels are wondering what you hope to achieve,’ he said.

‘Achieve?’ asked the Doctor. ‘We're not achieving anything. We're just hanging. It's nice in here. Consoles, comfy chairs, a forest. How's things with you?’

‘The Angels are feasting, sir. Soon we will be able to absorb enough power to consume this vessel, this world, and all the stars and worlds beyond.’

‘Well, we've got comfy chairs. Did I mention?’

‘We have no need of comfy chairs.’

The Doctor lowered the communicator and leaned back to whisper to Rose, River and Amy who had moved to stand behind him. ‘I made him say comfy chairs.’

Amy giggled. ‘Six.’

And that was enough for the Doctor to drop his calm demeanour. He jumped up from the chair and stood up straight. ‘Okay, Bob, enough chat,’ he said into the communicator. ‘Here's what I want to know. What have you done to Amy?’

Angel Bob’s reply was annoyingly cryptic.

‘There’s something in her eye.’

‘What's in her eye?’

‘We are.’

Rose looked at Amy, startled, but saw nothing unusual about her eyes. How could the Angels be in her eye? Maybe Angel Bob was just being cryptic again?

Amy had obviously had enough of people talking about her and staring at her. ‘Look I keep telling you all,’ she said, annoyed, ‘I'm five.’ She paused. ‘I mean, five. Fine! I'm fine.’

‘We shall take her,’ continued Angel Bob. ‘We shall take all of you. We shall have dominion over all time and space.’

‘Get a life, Bob,’ said the Doctor, trying to recover the casual tone he had had before. ‘Oops, sorry again. There's power on this ship, but nowhere near that much.’

‘With respect, sir, there's more power on this ship than you yet understand.’

A loud screeching filled the room, making Rose jump. It was coming from outside. ‘What the hell is that?’ she asked. ‘Is it the Angels?’

‘It's hard to put in your terms, Miss Tyler,’ answered Angel Bob, ‘but as best I understand it, the Angels are laughing.’

‘Laughing?’ asked the Doctor.

‘Because you haven't noticed yet, sir,’ explained Angel Bob. ‘The Doctor in the TARDIS hasn't noticed.’

‘Noticed what?’ asked Rose, looking around the room for something they may have missed. It didn’t take long for her to find it. ‘Doctor,’ she said, staring at the crack in the wall above one of the doors. But this wasn’t just a crack. There was a strange light coming from it, almost like it was flowing from whatever was behind the wall. And Rose was fairly certain that it was growing. She was positive she would have noticed a crack that big when they were locking the doors. Also, it seemed to be making the room shake ominously.

‘That's, that's, that's like the crack from my bedroom wall,’ said Amy, also staring at the crack, ‘from when I was a little girl.’

Rose turned to face her. ‘You mean the one Prisoner Zero came through?' She turned back to the crack, now even more anxious about whatever it was. 'It can’t be.’

‘Amy’s right,’ said the Doctor. ‘It’s even the same shape.’

‘Okay, enough,’ said Father Octavian, sternly. ‘We're moving out.’

‘Agreed,’ said River. ‘Doctor?’

‘Yeah, fine,’ he said but he was distracted. He was getting closer to the crack now, inspecting it.

‘What are you doing?’ asked River.

‘Right with you,’ he said in the same distracted tone. He now had his sonic screwdriver out and was scanning the crack.

River was starting to look annoyed now. ‘We're not leaving without you.’

‘Oh yes, you are. Bishop?’

Father Octavian stepped up. ‘Miss Tyler, Miss Pond, Doctor Song, now!’

His tone left no room for arguments but Rose tried anyway. ‘No, I’m staying with the Doctor,’ she said with as much stubbornness as she could muster (and she could muster a lot) but Father Octavian ignored her. He grabbed Amy (who was also protesting leaving the Doctor) by the arm and directed her towards the forest while River did the same to Rose (though not quite as forcefully).

They were a few steps behind Amy, Octavian and the other Clerics when River started to slow. ‘You know what he’s like, he’ll be fine,’ she assured Rose, loud enough for the others to hear. But then she loosened her grip and leant down and whispered in her ear. ‘But it’s probably best to check. You know what he’s like.’ A hint of mischief twinkled in River’s eye and she let go of Rose’s arm properly. Rose gave her a nod of thanks and turned and ran back the way they had come.

It didn't take long to get back to the flight deck and Rose cut through the last few trees just in time to see the Doctor trying to run away from the Angels who had now gotten into the room. There were so many! And one them seemed the have it’s stone hand clasped firmly around the back of the Doctor’s jacket.

He met her eyes and she could see the barely concealed fear in them. ‘It’s okay, Doctor, I’m here,’ she told him, trying not let her own fear show. ‘I can see all the Angels from here. Can you slip out of your jacket?’

The Doctor fidgeted a bit. ‘I think so,’ he said.

Rose let out a sigh of relief. ‘Good. Quick as you like then. I don’t know how long I’ll be able to go without blinking.’

It took a minute but the Doctor got out of his jacket and away from the Angel that had almost had him. As soon as he was free he whirled around to look at them. ‘I don’t think they are that interested in me anymore,’ he said, walking backwards until he was at Rose’s side (though she did have to take a step to the left so he didn’t walk straight into her).

Now that the Doctor was free, Rose payed closer attention to what the Angels were doing. Almost all of them were staring and/or reaching towards the crack in the wall. 

‘Oh that’s not good,’ muttered the Doctor and Rose felt him take her hand. ‘Oh, this isn't even a little bit good. What if that is the power that brought them here?’

‘What is it?’ asked Rose.

‘It's pure Time Energy but the Angles can’t feed on that. It's not even technically power, it's the fire at the end of the universe.’

‘Well, they certainly seem to like it,’ said Rose. ‘Maybe we should take this chance to get as far away from them as we can, yeah? While they’re distracted. We can figure out this time energy thing when we get to the other flight deck.’

The Doctor nodded and together they backed into the forest and then turned and ran to catch up to the others.

\----

It turned out that they needn’t have rushed (well, apart from the very good reason of not knowing how long the Angels would stay distracted); the others were waiting in a small clearing. As the Doctor and Rose approached, they heard River speaking to Father Octavian in quite a clipped tone.

‘Father Octavian, when the Doctor's in the room, your one and only mission is to keep him alive long enough to get everyone else home. And trust me, it's not easy. Now, if he's dead back there, I'll never forgive myself. And if he's alive, I'll never forgive him. And, Doctor, you're standing right behind me, aren't you?’

Rose let herself smile at that.

‘Oh, yeah,’ said the Doctor, also smiling.

River turned to face them. ‘I hate you.’

‘You don't,’ said the Doctor and he let go of Rose’s hand and bounded into the clearing. ‘Bishop, the Angels are in the forest.’

River glanced at Rose, rolling her eyes at the Doctor’s antics. It was another one of those moments that Rose figured may have been an inside joke so she did her best to smile back. If River noticed that that smile was slightly forced, she didn’t mention it. Instead, she turned back to face the Doctor. He was now sitting next to Amy, who was lying down and looking considerably worse than the last time they had seen her. Rose rushed to Amy’s other side and took her hand, hoping to comfort her.

River joined the at Amy's side and the Doctor straight away grabbed the device that she was holding (from what Rose saw of the screen, it seemed to be reading Amy’s vitals). 'Let's have a look, then,' he said, reading the screen with immense concentration.

‘So, what's wrong with me?’ asked Amy.

‘Nothing,’ said River, stroking Amy’s hair. ‘You're fine.’

‘Everything. You're dying,’ corrected the Doctor.

‘Doctor!’ snapped River but he just snapped right back at her.

‘Yes, you're right. If we lie to her, she'll get all better.’ He took a deep breath and looked down at Amy. ‘But I’m going to fix this,’ he said to her in a softer tone. ‘Promise.’ He sat back up properly as he started to think out loud. ‘Right. Amy, Amy, Amy. What's the matter with Amelia? Something's in her eye. What does that mean? Does it mean anything?’

‘Angel Bob said that they are,’ said Rose. ‘As in the Angels. But how can that be?’

‘Doctor,’ whispered Amy. ‘I’m scared.’

‘I know and I’m working on it,’ the Doctor told her, leaning down to lean his forehead against hers briefly. ‘I just have to think.’

Marco announced that the Angels were coming and Rose’s anxiety grew. She looked back to the Doctor who was now tapping his head as if it would help his brain work faster. ‘Come on, come on, come on,’ he said to himself. ‘Wakey, wakey. She watched an Angel climb out of the screen. She stared at the Angel and, and-’

‘The image of an Angel is an Angel,’ said Amy and Rose couldn’t help but feel a little bit proud. She was obviously scared but she wasn’t beaten yet. She was still thinking.

And she had said the exact right thing for the Doctor to figure out the answer. ‘A living mental image in a living human mind,’ he said, his eyes lighting up the way they did whenever he found the answer to something. ‘But we stare at them to stop them getting closer. We don't even blink, and that is exactly what they want. Because as long as our eyes are open, they can climb inside. There's an Angel in her mind.’

There was a moment of shocked silence as everyone took in what he had just said. There was an Angel in Amy’s mind! How on Earth were they going to fix that?

‘Three,’ said Amy, breaking the silence. ‘Doctor, it's coming. I can feel it. I'm going to die.’

‘No you’re not,’ said Rose, comfortingly. ‘We’ll figure something out. Just you watch.’

The Doctor nodded and then jumped to his feet. ‘Bob, why are they making her count?’ he asked into the communicator.

‘To make her afraid, sir,’ said Angel Bob. Not the answer they were hoping for.

‘Okay, but why?’ asked the Doctor. ‘What for?’

‘For fun, sir.’

Rose’s blood boiled. This was beyond cruel. Taunting them like this just for fun. The Doctor agreed, judging by the angry way he threw the communicator away.

‘Doctor, what's happening to me?’ said Amy from the forest floor. ‘Explain.’

He knelt back down beside her. ‘Inside your head,’ he said as gently as he could, ‘in the vision centres of your brain, there's an Angel. It's like there's a screen, a virtual screen inside your mind and the Angel is climbing out of it, and it's coming… to shut you off.’

‘Then what I do?’

‘If it was a real screen, what would we do?’ He seemed to be talking to himself again. ‘We'd pull the plug. We'd kill the power. But we can't just knock her out, the Angel would just take over.’

‘Then what?’ River almost shouted. ‘Quickly.’

‘We've got to shut down the vision centres of her brain. We've got to pull the plug. Starve the Angel.’

‘How?’ asked Rose.

The Doctor looked down to Amy. ‘Amy, close your eyes,’ he said.

‘No,’ said Amy, shaking her head. ‘No, I don't want to.’

‘Good, because that's not you, that's the Angel inside you. It's afraid. Do it. Close your eyes.’

After a couple of tense seconds, Amy managed to shut her eyes.

‘She's normalising,’ said River, reading the scanner that was monitoring Amy’s vitals. She looked up at the Doctor, relief and gratitude in her eyes. ‘Oh, you did it. You did it.’

But they weren’t out of trouble yet. More Angels were closing in on them now. They couldn’t stay where they were for much longer.

‘So, can I open my eyes now?’ asked Amy, sitting up.

‘Amy, listen to me,’ said the Doctor, gentle but firm. ‘If you open your eyes now for more than a second, you will die. The Angel is still inside you. We haven't stopped it, we've just sort of paused it. You've used up your countdown. I’m sorry but you cannot open your eyes.’

‘Doctor, we're too exposed here,’ said Father Octavian. ‘We have to move on.’

‘We're too exposed everywhere,’ countered the Doctor. ‘And Amy can't move. And anyway, that's not the plan.’

‘There's a plan?’ asked Rose and River together.

‘I don't know yet. I haven't finished talking.’ He clapped his hands together. ‘Right! Father, you and your Clerics, you're going to stay here, look after Amy. If anything happens to her, I'll hold every single one of you personally responsible, twice. River, you, me and Rose are going to find the Primary Flight Deck which is,’ he licked his finger and held it up as if judging the non existent wind direction. ‘A quarter of a mile straight ahead, and from there we're going to stabilise the wreckage, stop the Angels, and cure Amy.’

‘How?’ asked River.

‘I'll do a thing.’

‘What thing?’

The Doctor shrugged. ‘I don't know. It's a thing in progress. Respect the thing. Moving out!’

He started to head off in the direction he said the Primary Flight Deck was in but was stopped by Father Octavian. ‘Doctor, I'm coming with you,’ he said. ‘My Clerics will look after Miss Pond. These are my best men. They'd lay down their lives in her protection.’

‘With all due respect, Bishop,’ said the Doctor, ‘I don't need you.’

‘I don't care. Where Doctor Song goes, I go.’

The Doctor paused, looking between Father Octavian and River. River looked a little awkward. Rose had never seen River look awkward before. ‘What? You two engaged or something?’ asked the Doctor.

There was another awkward pause before Father Octavian answered. ‘Yes, in a manner of speaking. Marco, you're in charge till I get back.’

‘Sir,’ nodded Marco in acknowledgement.

‘Doctor? Please, can't I come with you?’ asked Amy, still sitting on the floor next to Rose.

‘You'd slow us down, Miss Pond,’ said Father Octavian, not unkindly.

‘I don't want to sound selfish, but you'd really speed me up.’

‘You'll be safer here,’ said The Doctor, coming over to sit next to her. ‘We can't protect you on the move. I'll be back for you soon as I can, I promise.’

‘You always say that,’ said Amy.

‘I always come back.’ He smiled at her but it dropped when he realised that she couldn’t see it. He stood up and addressed the rest of the group. ‘Good luck, everyone. Behave. Do not let that girl open her eyes. And keep watching the forest. Stop those Angels advancing. Amy, later. River, going to need your computer!’ He started to run off after River but Rose ran up to stop him.

‘Doctor, I’m staying here,’ she told him. He opened his mouth to protest but she cut him off. ‘I know Amy is tough but I also know that she is scared. I’m not going to make her alone too.’

‘She’s not alone,’ said the Doctor. ‘She has Marco and the other Clerics.'

‘Yeah but she only just met them. They can protect her from the Angels, sure, but what if she needs a hand to hold?’

Something shifted in the Doctor’s expression and Rose knew she had won.

‘Rose Tyler,’ he sighed. ‘You are too good for your own good, you know that?’

Rose chuckled. ‘Yep. Too good, that’s me. Now go. Find that flight deck and find out how to save Amy.’

The Doctor nodded then leant down to give her a quick kiss. They both missed the fond look River was giving them as she watched.

‘Be careful,’ whispered the Doctor before he ran off to join River and Father Octavian.

Rose watched them run off before turning back to look at the clearing that seemed so much emptier than before. ‘It’s okay, Amy,’ she called out. ‘I’m still here. I’ll be with you in a minute.’ She knew that Amy needed comforting and reassurance but Rose need a moment or two to compose herself. As much as she hated to admit it, she was really scared too.

She took a deep breath and was just about ready to go back to Amy when she heard something behind her. She spun around as quick as she could, knowing that if it was an Angel, she could never be quick enough, but also knowing that she wasn’t going to just stand there and let herself die. But it wasn’t an Angel.

Rose let out a relieved sigh and brought her hand up to clutch at her chest where her heart was still beating far too fast for comfort. ‘Doctor!’ she half shouted, half wheezed. ‘You scared the hell out of me!’ He didn’t reply; he just stood there, looking at her like he couldn’t believe she was there. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked, breathlessness and too-fast-beating-heart forgotten.

That seemed to snap him out of whatever spell he was under and he strode forward. He reached for her, almost tentatively, and when his hand rested on her shoulder he gave her one of his best smiles. ‘Nothing’s wrong,’ he said before adding, ‘Well, apart from, you know, everything.’

Rose chuckled, a little more at ease now that he was acting like his normal self.

‘I just need a minute to talk to Amy, okay?’ he said.

Rose nodded. ‘Of course.’ He gave her another one of those smiles that always made her heart melt and then walked over to Amy. Rose couldn’t hear what he was saying to her but she could tell that it was important.

After a minute, the Doctor gave Amy a quick kiss on the forehead and walked back over to Rose. She was about to ask what he had said to Amy but she didn’t get a chance. As soon as he was in reaching distance, he pulled her to him and gave her one of the best snogs of her life. It was full of love and need and desperation and if Rose was honest with herself, it frightened her a little bit. He only snogged her like this when they had just had a particularly close call and had almost lost each other… or whenever he thought he was never going to see her again. It just proved how dangerous their situation was.

But that didn’t stop Rose from enjoying the kiss. She wrapped her arms around the Doctor’s neck and held him impossibly closer. After a minute or two (or possibly an hour – Rose had lost track after the first two seconds) they broke apart and the Doctor rested his forehead against hers. Rose was a bit proud of the way he was panting, respiratory bypass system rendered useless.

After a moment, his breathing evened out. ‘I love you,’ he whispered, clutching at her a little tighter.

‘I love you, too,’ she whispered back and he pulled back to smile warmly at her. He let go of her waist and stepped back, much to Rose’s disappointment, and lifted a hand to tenderly cup her cheek. He opened his mouth to speak but faltered, not being able to get out whatever was rattling around in that busy mind of his. ‘I have to go,’ he finally said. Rose gave a shaky nod and the Doctor lowered his hand.

‘Doctor?’ came Amy’s voice, reminding Rose that they were not alone in the forest. ‘Doctor? Remember what?’

‘Sorry, Amy,’ said Rose and Amy visibly relaxed at the sound of her voice. ‘Be there in a sec.’ She turned back to face the Doctor. ‘What does she have to remember?’

The Doctor just gave her another smile, this one a lot sadder than the others, and then slowly walked back into the forest. It wasn’t until he was completely out of sight that Rose realised he had been wearing his jacket. How had he gotten it back?


	16. Flesh and Stone Part Two

At this precise moment in time, the Doctor had many problems.

Problem number one: hundreds of Weeping Angels were chasing them through a crashed spaceship.

Problem number two: Amy was being taken over by an Angel that had embedded itself in her visual cortex and if she opened her eyes for more than a second, she would die.

Problem number three: the crack in Amelia’s wall had turned out to be just one of many. There had been, or will be, an explosion that would literally crack the universe and now time energy was bleeding through. And anyone who got caught in that energy literally ceased to exist. They were wiped from history and forgotten like they were never there. And the crack in this part of time and space seemed to be growing at an alarming rate. It was getting closer and closer with every passing second.

Problem number four: they had lost Sacred Bob and all the other clerics who had fallen victim to the Angels or the time energy coming from the crack. And now, they had lost Father Octavian as well. An Angel had got to him just moments before they had reached the safety of the Primary Flight Deck. He had gone out bravely in the end and the Doctor wished he could have gotten to know the man a bit better.

Problem number five: River. It turned out that she was in the church’s _custody_ , not their employ, and after this mission she was to be sent back to her prison cell. She had apparently murdered a man. But the Doctor had more to worry about than that. He didn’t believe that River would do anything to jeopardise this mission. No, what worried the Doctor was that nearly all signs pointed to her being his wife and he couldn’t accept that. Rose was his wife. Okay, she wasn’t his wife _yet_ … but she could be one day. And even if River was from a time after Rose had gone (a time that he hoped never came to pass), how could he possibly move on from a love like that?

A terrifying thought crossed the Doctor’s mind. The time energy bleeding through the crack had the ability to change reality. Time could be rewritten. What if Rose fell through the crack? What would happen then? Would she get erased from history and he forget that she ever existed? No! He wouldn’t allow it. He raised the communicator that he taken off of River and spoke into it. ‘Rose, Amy, you have to start moving,' he told them, urgently. 'Now. There's time energy spilling out of that crack, and you have to stay ahead of it.’

‘We’re trying,’ came Amy’s slightly annoyed voice. The Doctor was extremely thankful that one of the Clerics had given them a communicator before he had gone to investigate the crack. Now it was only Amy and Rose left in the forest. Just them and the Angels. ‘It’s a bit hard when I can’t see,’ continued Amy. ‘Poor Rose has to help me walk and keep an eye out for angels at the same time.’

‘I just hope we’re going in the right direction,’ said Rose, her voice faint due to her distance from the communicator.

‘You are,’ the Doctor assured her. He had gotten a visual on one of the flight deck’s screens and he could see the light of the time energy slowly sweeping through the forest. ‘But you have to try and move faster. I'm sorry, I really am, but the Angels can only kill you.’

‘What does the time energy do?’ asked Amy.

The Doctor paused for a moment, deciding if he should tell her the truth or not. He knew he should, and he would… just not yet. ‘Just keep moving,’ he urged.

‘Tell me,’ said Amy and although she was scared, she could still sound very demanding and cross when she wanted to. There was no use arguing.

‘If the time energy catches up with you, you'll never have been born. It will erase every moment of your existence. You will never have lived at all.’ He took a breath to calm himself. ‘Now, keep your eyes shut and keep moving.’

River muttered something that sounded very much like “they’re never going to make it” and there went the Doctor’s calm that he had just gotten a hold of. ‘What else have you got! River!’ he shouted, well aware that he was taking his anger out on her unfairly but unable to stop himself. ‘Tell me!’

Any reply that River had was cut off by a loud banging sound echoing through the ship.

‘What's that?’ asked River, looking up at the ceiling.

‘The Angels running from the fire,’ said the Doctor, panic rising. ‘They came here to feed on the time energy, now it's going to feed on them.’

And that meant the Angels would all be heading through the forest towards this flight deck... the same way as Rose and Amy were.

The Doctor picked up the communicator again. ‘Rose, Amy, you have to move faster. The forest is going to be full of Angels any minute now.’

There were a few worrying seconds where the Doctor got no reply but then Rose’s voice crackled through the communicator. It sounded like she was trying to talk as quietly as she could. ‘We know,’ she said. ‘There are about six of them in our way.’ though it was quiet, the Doctor could still hear her voice crack with fear, ‘Doctor, I’m not sure I can get through. There’s too many.’

The Doctor pressed his hand to his forehead and squeezed his eyes shut. He should have never have left them there. Now they were trapped between the Angels and the time energy and it was all his fault. Slowly, he opened his eyes and lowered his hand. They only had one chance, however slim, and that was to try and go through the Angels.

‘Rose, listen to me,’ he said, trying not to sound as scared as he felt, ‘the Angels are distracted right now. The time energy is too much for them and now they are running. They’re not going to be paying close enough attention to you and Amy so they are just going to assume that you can both see them and their instincts will kick in. Tell Amy that she’s going to have to walk like she can see.’

There was a pause while Amy and Rose were no doubt conferring over the idea before the communicator crackled to life again. This time it was Amy who spoke. ‘Okay, walk like I can see. I’ll try.’

The Doctor couldn’t help the feeling of immense pride he had for both Amy and Rose at the moment. ‘Good girl,’ he whispered into the communicator. Now he just had to wait for them to tell him when they were safe. This was the worst part – not knowing.

‘That time energy, what's it going to do?’ asked River, staring at the wires in front of her. She was trying to fix the flight deck's knackered teleport system. It was a long shot to say the least.

‘Er, keep eating,’ replied the Doctor, rubbing his hand over his face. River was trying to distract him, he could tell, but it wouldn’t work. He wouldn’t be sated until he could see Rose and Amy in front of him, safe and sound.

‘How do we stop it?’

‘Feed it.’

‘Feed it what?’

He really didn’t want to talk about this right now. Amy and Rose hadn’t said anything for a while and his anxiety was growing with each passing second. ‘A big, complicated space time event should shut it up for a while,’ he said, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice.

‘Like what, for instance?’

‘Like me, for instance!’ he shouted, irritation well and truly showing.

There were a tense few seconds and the Doctor was about to apologise to River for snapping at her for the second time in the past five minutes but then Rose’s voice came through the communicator and he scrambled to pick it up from where he had left it on the flight deck’s control desk.

‘Doctor, we’re halfway through the Angels,' said Rose. 'So far so good.'

The Doctor breathed a huge sigh of relief. ‘See?’ he said a little shakily. ‘I told you it would work. Just keep moving. How’s Amy going?’ There was no answer. ‘Rose? Amy?’ Still no answer and the relief that the Doctor had felt a moment ago was now a long forgotten memory. ‘Rose! Talk to me!’

There was still no answer and the Doctor was on the verge of going into the forest to get them himself but then a bright light flashed through the flight deck and suddenly Amy and Rose were in the room with them. River had got the teleport working.

Rose stumbled and the Doctor shot forward to catch her and River did the same for Amy. After a moment, Rose collected herself and looked up at him. ‘Hello,’ she said with a relieved smile.

‘Hello,’ the Doctor beamed back before wrapping his arms around her in a crushing hug. She was here. She was safe.

Well, as safe as any of them at least.

‘Told you I could get it working,’ said River, smiling cheekily at him. But the Doctor could see that she was just as relieved as he was.

‘River Song, I could bloody kiss you,’ he said. Rose swatted his back with her hand and he quickly realised his mistake. ‘Just a figure of speech,’ he added quickly as he released her so she could breathe again. Suddenly an alarm started ringing, making Rose jump.

‘What's that?’ asked River.

‘The Angels are draining the last of the ship's power,’ said the Doctor, ‘which means the shield's going to release.’

Right on cue, the wall-length door opened to reveal not only the forest beyond, but the Angels too. And right in the front was…

‘Angel Bob, I presume,’ said the Doctor, taking a step forward. He trusted that the others were keeping their eyes on the rest of the Angels while he talked to Angel Bob.

‘The Time Field is coming,’ said Angel Bob. ‘It will destroy our reality.’

‘Yeah, and look at you all, running away. What can I do for you?’

‘There is a rupture in time. The Angels calculate that if you throw yourself into it, it will close, and they will be saved.’

‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Could do, could do that,’ he told Angel Bob. ‘But why?’

‘Your friends will also be saved.’

‘Well, there is that,’ the Doctor conceded. He felt Rose grip his hand and he gave it a tight squeeze in reassurance that he wasn’t going to throw himself into anything.

River seemed to be just as against the idea as Rose was. ‘I've travelled in time,’ she said. ‘I'm a complicated space time event too. Throw me in.’

‘Oh, be serious,’ said the Doctor, trying not to scoff too much. ‘Compared to me, these Angels are more complicated than you, and it would take every one of them to amount to me, so get a grip.’

‘Doctor, I can't let you do this.’

‘No, seriously, get a grip.’

‘You're not going to die here!’ shouted River and the Doctor almost growled in frustration. She still hadn’t gotten his hint and time was running out. At least Rose had understood. At least, he hoped she had. She had let go of his hand so he was assuming that the only reason she had done that was so she could grab ahold of something else.

‘No, I mean it,’ said the Doctor, hoping that one more time would be enough. ‘River, Amy, Rose, get a grip.’

‘Oh, you genius,’ said River (at last!) and the Doctor heard her help Amy find something to hold on to.

‘Sir, the Angels need you to sacrifice yourself now,’ said Angel Bob.

‘Thing is, Bob,’ said the Doctor, not bothering to keep the victory out of his voice. He always loved this part, ‘the Angels are draining all the power from this ship. Every last bit of it. And you know what? I think they've forgotten where they're standing. I think they've forgotten the _gravity_ of the situation. Or to put it another way, Angels.’ A beeping sounded from one of the monitors and the Doctor knew he only had seconds left – or rather, the Angels did. ‘Night, night.’ 

He turned just as the artificial gravity shut down and just managed to grab hold of the flight deck’s desk as his feet left the floor. He looked down at the forest beneath him. All the Angels had been caught off guard and were falling… right into the time energy. As soon as the last Angel had disappeared, the crack closed itself and bright light of the Time Field had gone.

Well, that had just shortened he Doctor’s list of problems significantly.

\----

It took a while, but the Doctor, Rose, River and Amy had made it out of the ship and back to the beach where the TARDIS was parked. Some Clerics had met them there and now they were waiting for the church to pick them up so they could take River back to Stormcage (the name of the prison at which she was being kept).

‘Ah. Bruised everywhere,’ complained Amy as she tried to stretch her limbs.

‘Me too,’ said the Doctor. Most of his bruises had already faded and didn’t hurt at all anymore but he thought that Amy might appreciate a bit of empathy.

‘You didn't have to climb out with your eyes shut,’ said Amy, grumpily. So much for empathy, then.

‘Neither did you,’ he explained for third time since defeating the Angels. ‘I kept saying. The Angels all fell into the Time Field. The Angel in your memory never existed. It can't harm you now.’

‘Then why do I remember it at all? Those guys on the ship didn't remember each other.’

The Doctor smiled warmly at her. ‘You're a time traveller now. Amy. It changes the way you see the universe. Forever. Good, isn't it?’

Her features softened and she smiled up at him. But after a few moments, she voiced the question that had been in the back of everyone’s mind. ‘And the crack, is that gone too?’

‘Yeah, for now,’ he said. ‘But the explosion that caused it is still happening. Somewhere out there, somewhere in time.’

‘So, I suppose that’s our next mission then,’ said Rose. She had just wandered over from the edge of the beach where she had been peacefully staring out into the distance.

‘Yep,’ the Doctor nodded and then looked to where River was standing by the Clerics. She was wearing handcuffs. It was an unnecessary precaution as far as the Doctor was concerned but he doubted the Clerics would agree with him. She was a murderer after all.

And that bothered the Doctor almost as much as the crack in the universe. Admittedly, he didn’t know River very well, but she didn’t seem like a murderer.

He walked over to her, Amy and Rose in tow, and she gave him a small smile. ‘The prison ship’s in orbit,’ she told them. ‘They'll beam me up any second. I might have done enough to earn a pardon this time. We'll see.’

‘Octavian said you killed a man,’ said the Doctor.

River’s expression turned solemn. ‘Yes, I did.’

‘A good man.’

‘A very good man,’ agreed River. ‘The best man I've ever known.’ The way she was looking at him left no doubt in the Doctor’s mind as to whom it was that she had killed.

But he had to ask.

‘Who?’

River just looked at him with guilt and pity in her eyes. ‘It's a long story, Doctor,’ she said. ‘It can't be told, it has to be lived. No sneak previews.’ Her expression turned mischievous again and a small smile played on her lips. ‘Well, except for this one. You'll see me again quite soon, when the Pandorica opens.’

The Doctor had to laugh at that. ‘The Pandorica. Ha! That's a fairy tale.’ A fairy tale he would be retelling quite soon judging by the curious look Rose was giving him.

River just smiled and laughed with him. ‘Aren’t we all?’ she said. ‘I'll see you there. I remember it well.’

‘Bye, River,’ said Amy.

River smiled at her. ‘See you, Amy.’ She turned to Rose. ‘Bye, Rose. Make sure to look after that one.’ She nodded at the Doctor.

Rose let out a small laugh that the Doctor suspected was only half forced. ‘I’ll do my best.’

‘I know you will,’ answered River before a beeping sounded. ‘Oh, I think that's my ride.’

‘Can I trust you, River Song?’ asked the Doctor.

‘If you like,’ answered River. She grinned at them all. ‘But where's the fun in that?’

A tornado of sand swirled around her as the church teleported her to their ship and a few seconds later, the Doctor, Rose and Amy were alone on the beach.

‘Well, that did not turn out to be the relaxing day I had planned out,’ said Rose, filling the silence.

The Doctor let out a laugh. ‘Did you expect anything less?’ he asked.

Rose shook her head, barely containing her own amused chuckle. ‘Never.’

They smiled at each other for a moment, enjoying the randomness that was their lives, before the Doctor clapped his hands together and pirouetted on the spot so he was now facing the TARDIS. ‘Right. So what’s this crack all about eh? Let’s find out.’

Together, the three of them strode into the TARDIS and the Doctor wasted no time in sending them on their next journey. ‘We have no idea what caused the crack,’ he explained, ‘but we do know when. Of course, we still don’t know where and the universe is a big place so there is still a lot of ground to cover but at least it is a start.' The TARDIS engines wheezed as he sent them into the vortex. ‘So what do you two reckon? Where should we start?’ He turned to face Rose. ‘Any ideas, Lewis?’

Rose, who had been just staring at the central column, took a moment to answer. She had obviously been lost in thought and the Doctor doubted it had had anything to do with the crack in the universe. He remembered all too well how she had reacted to meeting River the last time.

‘Oh. I don’t know,’ she said, her eyebrow crinkled in adorable confusion. ‘I mean, like you said, the universe is huge. What time period does this crack, or whatever it is, happen?’

‘Oh, Rose Tyler, I can do better than just a time period,’ said the Doctor; happy to have effectively distracted her from whatever negative thoughts she had been dwelling on a moment ago. ‘I can give you an exact date!’

‘Okay, Mr Impressive,’ she said, giving him a tongue-touched smile that made his own smile grow. ‘What’s the date?’

‘The 26th of June, 2010.’ He was about to suggest a plan of action that involved many astral maps, much hacking of multiple government computers from many different planets, and a tonne of tea and Jammie Dodgers, but Amy interrupted before he could even begin.

‘But that’s tomorrow,’ she said.

‘Sorry, what?’

‘You picked me up from my house on the 25th. The 26th of June is tomorrow.’ Her eyes widened a bit in the startings of panic. ‘It’s just a coincidence, though, right? I mean, it must be. Yeah?’

‘I don’t know,’ said the Doctor, thoughtfully. It could be just a coincidence but in his experience, he found it best to never just assume. ‘One way to find out,’ he said, jumping back into action and setting the coordinates for Amy’s house in Leadworth. ‘What time did we pick you up?’

Amy shrugged. ‘I don’t know. The TARDIS sound woke me up, I wasn’t really paying attention to the clock. I think it was 11 something.’

‘Right then. Earth, England, Leadworth, Amy’s house, 25th of June, 11 something pm.’ He set the final coordinates and pulled down the lever. Less than a minute later, they landed in Amy’s bedroom. It was not long before midnight. The Doctor hadn’t wanted to risk landing while Amy was still in bed. He was hoping to avoid a paradox thank you very much.

‘Here we are then,’ he said as started to walk towards the doors, Rose close behind him.

‘Wait,’ Amy called out and they both stopped and turned to face her. She looked nervous. ‘Rose, do you think you could give me a moment alone with the Doctor?’ she asked. ‘There’s some stuff I need to talk to him about.'

Rose and the Doctor shared a curious glance but she agreed to Amy’s request.

Once the Doctor and Amy were out of the TARDIS and in her bedroom, Amy sat down on her bed, staring across the room. The Doctor waited a moment for her to say whatever she needed to say to him but when he got nothing but silence, he followed her gaze and saw exactly why tomorrow was so special to Amy. There, hanging on the door to her wardrobe, was a wedding dress.

‘Blimey,’ said the Doctor, walking over and sitting down next to her on the bed.

‘I know,’ agreed Amy. ‘This is the same night we left, yeah?’

The Doctor nodded, still staring at the wedding dress. It seems that Rose was way off in thinking that Amy had just gone through a break up. Way _way_ off.

As if to prove his point, Amy picked up a small box from her nightstand and opened it, showing him her engagement ring. ‘I’m getting married in the morning,’ she said.

Something about this was definitely not right.

‘Why did you leave it here?’ he asked, nodding at the ring.

‘Why did I leave my engagement ring when I ran away with a strange man the night before my wedding?’

‘Yeah.’

Amy regarded him for a moment, a hint of amusement in her eyes. ‘You really are an alien, aren't you.’

‘So who's the lucky fellow?’ asked the Doctor, still trying to figure out why Amy needed to talk about this to him. She obviously had doubts about the wedding but this was the sort of thing that Rose usually did – the domestics. The Doctor wasn’t very good at it and he didn’t particularly want to say the wrong thing and have Amy missing out on a brilliant life because of him.

‘You met him,’ said Amy, answering his question about her groom.

‘Rory?’ he asked. ‘Or the good looking one?’

Amy gave a little giggle and nudged his shoulder. ‘Rory.’

‘Well, he was good looking too… apparently.’

Amy laughed again. ‘Thanks. So, do you comfort a lot of people on the night before their wedding?’

‘Why would you need comforting?’

Yep, this was definitely more in Rose’s area.

‘I nearly died.’

Oh, right. The Doctor had been so blown over by the revelation of Amy’s impending nuptials that he had almost forgotten about their little adventure with the Angels.

‘I was alone in the dark,’ continued Amy, ‘and I nearly died. And it made me think.’

‘Well, yes, natural,’ said the Doctor, trying to think of something comforting to say. ‘I think sometimes. Well, lots of times.’ He winced internally.

But Amy didn’t seem to be put off by his terrible comforting skills. In fact, she scooted a bit closer to him on the bed. ‘About what I want,’ she continued. ‘About who I want. You know what I mean?’

The Doctor slowly nodded. ‘Yeah.’ Then shook his head. ‘No.’ He wasn’t sure he liked the way she was looking at him. She didn’t look like someone who needed comforting.

‘About _who_ I want,’ tried Amy again as if it would help him understand whatever she was getting at.

‘Oh right, yeah,’ nodded the Doctor before giving up and shaking his head again. ‘No, still not getting it.’

Amy sighed, though she still had that amused twinkle in her eyes. ‘Doctor. In a word. In one very simple word even you can understand.’

And then she kissed him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still not sure about how I started this chapter. I feel like I skipped to much of the episode between it and the end of the last chapter. Let me know what you all thought?


	17. Meanwhile in the TARDIS

Rose sat on the jump seat as she waited for Amy to have her talk with the Doctor. On any other occasion, she probably would have given in to temptation and used the TARDIS scanner to do a sneaky bit of eavesdropping, but at the moment she just had too much on her mind. You would think after meeting River again, there would be a little less mystery surrounding the woman, but instead it had just gotten worse.

River had killed someone. Rose still couldn’t wrap her head around it. River was definitely a rule breaker and maybe even a criminal… but a murderer? Rose was having a hard time believing that she would go that far.

But River had admitted to it. And the way she had said it – “the best man I’ve ever known” - made it easy to guess whom she was referring to. River had killed the Doctor.

And Rose wanted to hate her for that – and part of her did - but she had seen the look in River’s eyes. She had seen that she had felt genuine guilt and remorse. Plus, Rose had seen first hand the kind of woman River would become. At the Library, she had sacrificed herself to save all those people. No matter what she had done in the past, she would become a good, brave woman. Rose was just worried about what it would take to get her there.

Rose let her head fall to her hands as her mind tried to sort out all her conflicting thoughts. This would be so much easier if River wasn’t so likable – if Rose could just hate her and nothing else. But that wasn’t the case. As much as Rose was fighting it, she was beginning to like River. She reminded her a bit of Jack.

And with that in mind, Rose decided to hold back on her hatred of River until she knew more. For all she knew, River may be like the Doctor and needlessly blamed herself for the deaths of those around her. Maybe there was more to this supposed murder than the church had let on. There were just too many variables. Rose let out a frustrated sigh. This was exactly why she hated knowing her own personal future. Everything became so complicated.

Rose was pulled from those complicated thoughts by the sound of muffled shouting from outside and then the TARDIS door opening. The Doctor ran through, closely followed by Amy who was looking at him in a way that Rose could only describe as predatory.

‘What’s going on?’ she asked, standing up. As soon as she saw Rose, Amy stopped stalking the Doctor like prey and now looked a little awkward.

‘Rose, tell her!’ said the Doctor as he ran to hide behind her, using her as a sort of human shield between him and Amy. ‘Tell her you’re my girlfriend.’

Rose looked between the two of them, not quite sure what to make of the situation. ‘What’s going on?’ she asked again.

‘She kissed me,’ said the Doctor, eyeing Amy warily before his eyes suddenly snapped to Rose. ‘I didn’t kiss her back, I swear,’ he said quickly.

And considering his reaction to the apparent kiss, Rose believed him.

‘So, you are his girlfriend?’ asked Amy.

Rose turned to face her, anger and betrayal burning in her veins, but it all vanished when she saw Amy’s face. She looked so confused and worried. Yet she still somehow seemed to look impatient while waiting for Rose to answer. And that’s when Rose realised: Amy really didn’t know that Rose and the Doctor were together. It seemed that Rose’s plan to not act so couple-y in front of her had worked a little too well.

‘Yeah, I am,’ Rose finally answered. ‘You really didn’t know?’

Amy shook her head. Her eyes flicked through several emotions – shame, guilt, fear - but then narrowed at the Doctor. ‘Would it kill you to kiss her once in a while?’ she half shouted, throwing her arms in the air on either side of her for emphasis.

‘No it definitely wouldn’t,’ said the Doctor and next thing Rose knew, he had whirled her round to face him and he was lowering his head towards hers. She quickly put her hands on his chest to stop him. Now was not the time.

The Doctor looked a little hurt at her rejection so she lowered her hands from his chest and grabbed his right hand with her left to let him know it wasn’t his fault. She turned back to Amy. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said, feeling the need to apologise for the confusion. ‘I thought you knew.’

Amy looked shocked. ‘You’re apologising? I kissed your boyfriend, and _you’re_ the one apologising?’

Rose shrugged. ‘It was just a misunderstanding. And it was my fault. It was my idea to tone down the lovey-dovey stuff.’ She cringed at the cheesiness of the term.

‘Why?’ asked Amy, her brow crinkled in confusion.

‘Because I didn’t want you to feel like the third wheel. Especially after you and Rory-’

‘Ah, about that,’ interrupted the Doctor and Rose looked up at him, wearing the look of confusion that a minute ago had belonged to Amy.

‘What?’ she asked.

‘Well, it seems that you were a tinsy bit wrong about that detail. Well, I say a tinsy bit, what I mean is a tinsy lot. Amy and Rory didn’t break up, they got engaged. They’re getting married tomorrow.'

Rose’s eyes widened as she realised how badly she had misread the situation but then the full impact of what Amy had just done hit her and she felt that betrayal boiling up inside her again. But this time, it was betrayal on behalf of someone else. She looked back to Amy who was now staring at the glass floor, looking very ashamed and awkward. ‘You kissed another man on the night before your wedding?’ she asked, trying not to snap at her but not bothering to ease her judgmental tone. ‘Why?’

Amy looked up at her then and Rose’s anger simmered a bit. Amy just looked so lost. ‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘I love Rory and I want to be with him but I just… I was…’ She closed her mouth, unable to finish her sentence.

There was a moment or two of awkward silence before the Doctor spoke up. ‘Right, the universe will have to wait, I’m afraid,’ he said, letting go of Rose’s hand and moving to the console. ‘We have something much more important to save: a marriage. Well, a future marriage anyway. Amy Pond, let’s go get your fiancé. Where is he?’

Amy told the Doctor where Rory’s stag night was being held that night and a minute later, the TARDIS was landing outside the building. As soon as the central column had stopped moving, the Doctor started marching towards the doors to go get Rory. ‘Doctor…’ Rose stopped him. He stopped mid step and span on the one foot he had on the ground so that he was now facing her. ‘Just… be subtle,’ she told him. She hadn’t known this Doctor long but she had worked out that he had a tendency to say whatever he was thinking.

The Doctor straightened his bow tie with both hands. ‘I’m always subtle.’ And then he turned back around and left to go fetch Rory. Rose just hoped that he wouldn’t embarrass the poor man on his stag night. This was going to be tough enough on Rory as it is.

But Rose couldn’t worry about that right now, she now had something else to worry about. The Doctor’s departure had left an air of awkwardness in the console room and Rose wasn’t entirely sure how to break it. She could see that Amy was feeling guilty and maybe a little bit scared of Rory’s reaction, which had helped to lessen Rose's anger, but she couldn’t help feeling disappointed in her new friend.

‘How do I tell him?’ asked Amy, finally breaking the silence. It was the quietest Rose had ever heard her speak.

‘I don’t know,’ answered Rose, truthfully. She didn’t exactly have experience in this sort of thing apart from when she and Mickey had had it out because she left with the Doctor. Rose cringed internally. Maybe she was being a tad hypocritical with Amy. Rose may not have kissed him, but she had definitely fallen for the Doctor long before her and Mickey had been properly over. She still felt guilty about how that relationship had ended. ‘Just be honest, I guess,’ she told Amy.

Amy nodded, obviously lost in thought. It was a few more moments before Rose couldn’t keep in the question she was dying to ask.

‘Do you want to marry Rory?’

‘Yes,’ said Amy at once. She looked a little shocked at how quickly she had answered.

‘Then why did you do it?’ There was no judgement in Rose’s tone this time, just curiosity.

Amy looked at her for a moment, as if worried about what she was going to say or even if she should say it, but she eventually made her decision. ‘I’m scared,’ she said. ‘I want to be with Rory, I really do, but… it’s just _marriage_ , you know? It’s so… big. Everyone keeps saying it’s the start of the next chapter of my life, but I don’t want to start a new chapter. I like the chapter I’m on. Does that sound stupid?’

Rose shook her head. ‘Not at all. I don’t have much experience with this sort of thing, but just because you and Rory have a bit of paper to say you are married, doesn’t mean things are suddenly going to change for the two of you. Not if you don’t want them to. You should talk to Rory about it. Maybe he feels the exact same way.’

‘I doubt it,' said Amy but she gave Rose a small grateful smile anyway. 'All he talks about it how he can’t wait for me to be Mrs Williams. It’s kinda sweet but not helping with my nerves. But you’re right; I should talk to him properly. And maybe he will forgive me.’

She looked down at her shoes again, lost in thought and worry. All Rose’s anger had disappeared now that she saw that Amy really did feel guilty about what she had done. She walked over and put her hand on Amy’s shoulder. 

‘All you can do is try. Me and the Doctor will find somewhere nice to take the two of you. Somewhere romantic. And everything will work out, you’ll see.’

Amy gave her another one of those grateful smiles but Rose could tell that she didn’t quite believe her words. To be honest, Rose wasn’t sure she believed them either. They would just have to wait and see what happened when Rory got there, she supposed. With any luck, a trip away from Earth and their normal lives would do them both some good.


	18. The Vampires of Venice Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am _so_ sorry about the wait. I got about halfway through this one and then just lost all motivation for it. But rest assured, I have not abandoned this series yet.

Rose and Amy had had just enough time to have showers and get changed before the Doctor returned with a very upset looking Rory in tow. It didn’t take long to find out that the Doctor’s idea of “subtle” was to jump out of a cake and announce, in front of all of Rory's closest friends, that Rory’s fiancé had kissed another man on the night before their wedding. No wonder Rory was glaring at the Doctor. Rose sent an apologetic look to Amy. This was going to be even more awkward than they had first thought.

‘Oh, the life out there, it dazzles,’ said the Doctor as he did some quick minor repairs underneath the TARDIS console. ‘I mean, it can blind you to the things that are important. I've seen it devour relationships and plans. Because for one person to have seen all that, to taste the glory and then go back, it will tear you apart. So, I'm sending you somewhere, together.’

He finished his repairs and made his way up to the main level where Rose, Amy and Rory were standing. ‘Anywhere you want,’ he continued, looking between Amy and Rory. ‘Any _time_ you want. One condition. It has to be amazing. The Moulin Rouge in 1890. The first Olympic Games. Think of it as a wedding present, because frankly it's either this or tokens. It's a lot to take in, isn't it?’ This bit was directed at Rory. ‘Tiny box, huge room inside. What's that about? Let me explain.’

‘It's another dimension,’ said Rory, interrupting the Doctor's ramble.

‘It's basically another dimension,’ continued the Doctor before he realised what Rory had said. ‘What?’

‘After what happened with Prisoner Zero, I've been reading up on all the latest scientific theories,' explained Rory,' still glaring daggers at the Doctor. While it wasn’t totally uncalled for, Rose still wished he’d stop. 'FTL travel, parallel universes.’

Rose had to hide a wince at that last one.

‘I like the bit when someone says it's bigger on the inside. I always look forward to that,’ said the Doctor, turning to Rose with a fake pout. She walked over and patted him on the shoulder affectionately.

‘I know. But never mind. How about we get these two off on that date, yeah? Somewhere romantic.’

The Doctor nodded and smiled at the engaged couple in front of them who were looking anywhere but at each other. ‘I know just the place.’

\----

Rose had to admit the Doctor had done well in choosing where to take Amy and Rory on their “date”. Venice was perfect! Beautiful buildings, gondola rides, Italian food – it all made for a very romantic setting. And the fact that it was 1580 meant that there were significantly less tourists about to spoil the mood. Rose cast a glance at Rory, he was looking around the market place they had landed in with a look of wonder and disbelief. It was nice to see something of the man she had met back in Leadworth again. She hadn’t seen anything but betrayal and anger in his eyes since he stepped aboard the TARDIS.

The Doctor, bless him, was doing his best to distract the pair from the awkward situation by telling them about a bet he once made with Casanova but he was interrupted mid-story by a inspector or something of the like.

‘Papers, if you please,’ said the inspector. ‘Proof of residency, current bill of medical inspection.’

The Doctor held up the psychic paper. ‘There you go, fella. All to your satisfaction, I think you'll find.’

The inspector read the psychic paper and his eyes widened. ‘I am so sorry, Your Holiness,’ he said to the Doctor with a small bow. ‘I didn't realise.’ Rose had to bite the inside of her cheek to stop herself from laughing when the Doctor accepted the man’s apology by blessing him.

‘No worries. You were just doing your job,’ said the Doctor. ‘Sorry, what exactly is your job?’

‘Checking for aliens. Visitors from foreign lands what might bring the plague with them.’

‘Oh, that's nice,’ grumbled Amy. ‘See where you bring us? The plague.’ She emphasised her displeasure with a light punch on the Doctor’s arm.

‘Don't worry, Viscountess,’ the inspector told Amy, giving her a bow as well. ‘No, we're under quarantine here. No one comes in; no one goes out, and all because of the grace and wisdom of our patron, Signora Rosanna Calvierri.’ He straightened up and stood a little taller when he mentioned Signora Calvierri, whoever she may be. Rose snuck a look to the Doctor to see if he recognised the name but he looked just as in the dark as she was.

‘How interesting,’ he said to the inspector. ‘I heard the plague died out years ago.’

‘Not out there,’ said the inspector, pointing in a random direction to indicate the world outside Venice. ‘No, Signora Calvierri has seen it with her own eyes. Streets are piled high with bodies, she said.’

‘Did she now,’ muttered the Doctor and Rose knew that they would more than likely paying this Rosanna Calvierri a visit in the near future.

The inspector moved on and the Doctor nudged Rose’s shoulder to indicate that they should go the opposite direction. They started to walk out of the marketplace but Rose stopped when she noticed Rory hadn’t moved, he was staring at the psychic paper that he had taken from the Doctor.

‘It’s slightly psychic,’ she told him. ‘Makes people see whatever you want them to see.’

Rory stared at it for another moment before giving a small nod and handing it to Rose. ‘Slightly psychic?’ he said. ‘Could’ve had done with that back in Uni.’

Rose laughed at that, happy to see that Rory was still able to make jokes. Her smile fell a bit though when she realised that despite the quip, he wasn’t smiling. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘We’d better catch up to the others.’

\----

There was a crowd gathering at the side of the canal as they passed so naturally they had to see what all the fuss was about. Across the canal, Rose could see a big building with iron gates, out of which, two rows of young women dressed in white were walking. Rose distinctly heard one of the people in the crowd beside her whisper in awe. ‘The Calvierri girls.’

Suddenly, a short stocky black man with a beard ran up to the girls. Rose couldn’t hear what was being said but it looked like the man was looking for one girl in particular, he kept lifting the veil of each of the girls in white and then moving on to the next one. After a few tries, he seemed to have found who he was looking for but Rose couldn’t make out much of her features other than she was black and clearly very pretty. The man didn’t get the chance to utter more than a few words to the girl before one the others knocked him to the ground. Rose was surprised to see the man scoot back a little on the ground in fear when he looked back up at the girl.

With an order from an older woman, the girls left the man and continued on their walk. The man shouted after them and this time Rose heard his words.

‘Isabella! It's me!’

That was odd. The girl he was talking to must have been Isabella but why didn’t she recognise the man? Or maybe she did but she just didn’t want to acknowledge him because he was a crazy stalker? That was a possibility but somehow Rose doubted it was what was happening here.

She turned to Amy and Rory. ‘You two should go explore,’ she told them. This was supposed to be a romantic date for them to rekindle their love and for Amy to get the chance to talk to Rory, they didn’t need a mystery getting in the way of it. Amy looked between her, the man on the canal and Rory a couple of times before finally taking Rory’s hand and nodding.

The pair walked away and Rose looked up at the Doctor. He gave her a warm smile and then tugged her hand to indicate that they should go the opposite way, which Rose instinctively knew would be towards the mystery that she knew the Doctor would be just as eager to solve as she was.

\----

‘Who are those girls?’ asked the Doctor. The man in front of him startled for a moment, not realising that he had been followed after the scene he had made at the canal.

‘I thought everyone knew about the Calvierri school,’ he said.

A school. Of course. He probably should have realised that. What with the impressive building and the line of young girls, two by two, in uniform (well, uniform may have been pushing it, but they were all wearing the same thing).

The Doctor shrugged. ‘Our first day here.’

‘Was that girl your daughter?’ asked Rose from beside him and the man nodded.

‘Parents do all sorts of things to get their children into good schools,’ said the Doctor. ‘They move house, they change religion. So why are you trying to get her out?’

‘Something happens in there,’ answered the man. ‘Something magical, something evil. My own daughter didn't recognise me. And the girl who pushed me away, her face, like an animal.’

The Doctor’s already piqued interest rose a couple of notches.

‘I think it's time we met this Signora Calvierri.’

\----

Guido - the man whom was trying to get his daughter, Isabella back – had distracted the guards of the school and the Doctor had had no trouble slipping inside. He had instructed Rose to keep an eye out outside and alert him if anyone looked like they may have spotted him.

Inside the school was beautiful. He did love Italian architecture. He made his way done a stone staircase, figuring that if there was anything sinister going on, it would be downstairs, out of the way from prying eyes.

The staircase led to a room with many other exits but nothing else apart from a mirror. The Doctor examined his reflection. ‘Hello, handsome,’ he said out loud, grinning at his reflection. This body may not be quite as pretty as his last but he still rather liked it. And, more importantly, so did Rose.

He was just adjusting the mirror when an echoed ‘Who are you?’ alerted him to the presence of other people in the room. The Doctor whirled around to see five girls staring at him. They were all wearing white night gowns. These were probably the school’s “students”.

‘Who are you?’ the girls repeated in perfect unison. Oh that was creepy, but what was creepier was the fact that none of the girls were reflected in the mirror. He flicked his head between the girls and the mirror a few times just to be sure. Yep, definitely no reflection.

‘How are you doing that?’ he asked. ‘I am loving it. You're like Houdini, only five slightly scary girls, and he was shorter. Will be shorter. I'm rambling.’

‘I'll ask you again, signor,’ said the girls. ‘Who are you?’

‘Why don't you check this out?’ said the Doctor holding up a wallet that he thought contained the psychic paper. The girls just stared at it, expressions unchanged, and the Doctor realised that the wallet actually contained his old library card. He almost smacked himself. Rose still had his psychic paper from when she was explaining it to Rory.

‘I need a spare,’ he muttered before once again addressing the girls. ‘Pale, creepy girls who don't like sunlight and can't be seen…’ He glanced at the mirror, leaving the rest of his sentence unsaid. ‘Ha. Am I thinking what I think I'm thinking? But the city. Why shut down the city? Unless…’

‘Leave now, signor, or we shall call for the Steward,’ they all smiled at him and it was far from friendly, ‘if you are lucky.’

The girls opened their mouths, revealing pointy teeth, which just increased the Doctor excitement. They were vampires! Not the Vampires that his people had fought long ago (thank Goodness) but still… vampires! He couldn’t wait to tell Rose.

The vampires were now advancing on him and hissing menacingly. The Doctor backed up to the staircase he had originally come down but he couldn’t leave before trying something. ‘Tell me the whole plan,’ he said to the girls, trying to sound demanding but too giddy to quite pull off the correct tone. Unsurprisingly, the girls didn’t answer, they just kept advancing. ‘One day that will work,' the Doctor muttered to himself before running up the stairs and away from the vampires.

\----

Rose waited impatiently while the Doctor did all the snooping in the school. Guido’s distraction had worked perfectly so there was really no reason for her to be here except for a precautionary measure in case things went wrong. Rose sighed. Who was she kidding? Things always went wrong.

After a few minutes, she saw the Doctor sneak out of the school. That had been quick. He must have found something… or something had found him. Once he was clear from being noticed by the guards, he ran to her, grabbing her hand on the way past. Rose would have been scared by the hurry he was in if it wasn’t for the fact that he was grinning from ear to ear.

As soon as they were a safe distance away from the school, he slowed to a stop and Rose finally got to chance to ask him what he had found.

‘Vampires!’ was his excited reply before he picked her up in a tight hug, lifting her feet off the ground.

Rose giggled as he spun her around a couple of times before putting her back down. ‘Vampires?’ she asked, still giggling a bit. ‘Like actual vampires?’

‘Well, maybe not actual vampires,’ said the Doctor though his glee didn’t dissipate at the admission. ‘But pale girls with pointy teeth and no reflection – that’s close enough for me!’ He grabbed her hand and Rose prepared herself to run again. ‘Come on, let’s go tell Amy and Rory.’

\----

It didn’t take long to find the couple and it was obvious by Amy’s excited expression that they had had their own vampire encounter. Rose chuckled as Amy and the Doctor talked over each other, each eager to tell their own story. She had been hoping for a danger-lite trip for Amy and Rory but she couldn’t help but share their enthusiasm at this newfound adventure. After all, it was vampires!. How could you not be excited?

If your name was Rory Williams apparently.

Rory was looking at the Doctor and Amy with a look of hurt and jealousy. Well, that wouldn’t do. Rose walked over to him and nudged his shoulder with hers. ‘Come on, crack a smile,’ she said. ‘I mean, how many people can say they’ve seen an actual vampire? In Venice of all places.’

‘In Venice in the _16th century_ ,’ added Amy, appearing on Rory’s other side and grabbing his hand. She must have noticed Rory’s less than happy state.

And she had done exactly the right thing to fix it. Rory’s lips turned up into a small smile as he looked at Amy. That was a good sign. Maybe Amy could fix the damage she had done after all. ‘Okay, yeah it is a bit cool,’ Rory admitted, though Rose could tell he thought it was far more than just “a bit” cool.

Amy smiled at him and then turned to face the Doctor, not letting go of Rory’s hand. ‘So what do we do? How do we stop them?’

‘Well that depends on what they are doing,’ said the Doctor. ‘And to find out, we need to get back into that school.’

‘What?’ asked Rory, apprehension in his voice. He obviously wasn’t keen to have a second encounter with the vampires, no matter how cool they were.

‘How do we do that?’ asked Amy, nonplussed at the Doctor’s suggestion. Only a few adventures in, she was already used to her and the Doctor and Rose's lifestyle.

The Doctor smiled knowingly. ‘Come and meet my new friend.’

\----

They had found Guido’s house no trouble and the man had eagerly accepted their offer of help. Once they were all situated in the dining room, he got out a map of Venice and laid it across the table. ‘As you saw, there's no clear way in,’ said Guido, pointing at the school on the map. ‘The House of Calvierri is like a fortress. But there's a tunnel underneath it, with a ladder and shaft that leads up into the house. I tried to get in once myself, but I hit a trapdoor.’

‘You need someone on the inside,’ said Amy, voicing what Rose was just thinking. If one of them got accepted into the school, they could sneak down there at night and open it for the others. But she wasn’t going to let Amy risk herself. God knew what those vampires were doing and besides, this was supposed to be her big romantic date with Rory.

And it seemed that the Doctor agreed with her unspoken thought. 

‘No,’ he told Amy.

‘You don't even know what I was going to say,’ said Amy and Rose raised an eyebrow. It was a tad obvious what Amy was planning on suggesting.

‘Er, that we pretend you're an applicant for the school to get you inside, and tonight you come down and open the trapdoor to let us in,’ said the Doctor.

Amy’s shoulders sagged. ‘Oh. So you do know what I was going to say.’

‘Are you insane?’ asked Rory. The amazement of time travel and vampires had worn off and he now seemed to be taking in just how dangerous this life was.

‘We don't have another option,’ said Amy with a shrug.

‘He said no, Amy. Listen to him.’

‘There is another option,’ interrupted Guido and all heads turned to him. He pointed to a few barrels that were piled up against the wall behind Rory. ‘I work at the Arsenale,’ he explained. ‘We build the warships for the navy.’

The Doctor moved over to examine the barrels, giving them a big sniff in the process. ‘Gunpowder. Most people just nick stationery from where they work.’ He straightened up and faced Guido. Rory slowly moved away from the barrels. ‘Look, I have a thing about guns and huge quantities of explosive.’

‘What do you suggest, then?’ said Guido, angrily. ‘We wait until they turn her into an animal?’

‘I think Amy has the right idea,’ said Rose. The Doctor and Rory looked at her with shocked expressions and Amy smiled at her apparent victory. ‘Just with one tiny adjustment,’ she added and Amy’s smile fell a little.

‘What adjustment?’ she asked.

‘I go in instead.’

‘No,’ said the Doctor at once.

‘I’ll be fine,’ Rose told him. ‘I’ve been in worse positions than this and you know it.’

‘And so have I,’ said Amy, walking up to stand by Rose’s side. I say we both go in. That way we can look out for each other.’

The Doctor’s jaw tensed as he considered it and Rose knew that she and Amy had won. She also knew that the Doctor didn’t like it. ‘Fine,’ he said. Rory made protest but the Doctor waved him off. ‘But we go together, say you're my sisters.’

Rose crinkled her nose at the thought. ‘That’s weird but, Doctor, you can’t. They’ve already seen you. And they definitely know Guido.’

They all turned to face Rory.

‘Me?’ he asked.

Amy and Rose nodded. ‘You’ll be fine,’ said Rose, encouragingly.

‘It will just be like being in a play,’ added Amy, playfully ruffling his hair.

Rory dodged away from her hand. ‘This whole thing is mental. They're vampires, for God's sake.’

‘We hope,’ said the Doctor.

‘So if they're not vampires?’ asked Amy.

‘Makes you wonder what could be so bad it doesn't actually mind us thinking it's a vampire.’

That did not help Rory’s apprehension so Rose gave him another reassuring smile. ‘We’ll be fine,’ she told him. ‘Like Amy said, we can look after each other. And we have to do something to help Isabella.’

That seemed to do the trick. With a reluctant sigh, Rory let himself be dragged off to Guido’s room to change his clothes. They had to look the part and Rory’s specially made stag night shirt (featuring a picture of him and Amy within a love heart) definitely was not going to cut it.

\----

Rory had stumbled through his lines as he had asked Signora Calvierri to let his “sisters” Rose and Amy join the school and Rose made a mental note to not let Rory go undercover again until they had given him some acting lessons. Signora Calvierri had unsurprisingly looked doubtful and there had also been one terrifying moment when Rose thought that Francesca (Signora Calvierri’s right hand man) had recognised Amy but thankfully that soon passed and once Signora Calvierri had seen Rose and Amy’s “references” on the psychic paper, she readily accepted the two women into her school.

But Rose still felt a little uneasy. She put it down to being in a house full of vampires and allowed herself to be led to her room.

Carlo, one of the school’s stewards, opened a door and ushered Amy and Rose inside. The room was a bit like a dormitory. There were several beds lined along the walls, most of which were occupied by pretty girls about Rose and Amy’s age. ‘There are clothes on the beds,’ he told them. ‘Get changed and wait here.’

With a nod of his head, he ushered all the other girls out of the room to let Amy and Rose change in privacy.

‘Blimey. This is private education, then?’ said Amy, looking up at the beautiful domed ceiling.

‘Far cry from Jericho Street,’ muttered Rose, also looking around the room. She stopped when she saw that not all of the girls had left with Carlo. There was still one left sitting on her bed. And Rose was fairly certain her name was Isabella. She nudged Amy’s arm to get her attention and after sharing a quick look, the pair walked over to join the girl.

‘Hey,’ said Amy before she remembered that this was the 16th century. ‘Hello,’ she corrected. ‘I'm Amy and this is Rose. What's your name?’

‘Isabella,’ said the girl and Rose let herself smile. Isabella seemed to still know some of who she was. She wasn’t like the other girls in the school. Rose felt a pang of guilt. Were the other girls born “vampires” or were they just other innocent victims like Isabella? Either way, somehow Rose figured that it was too late to save them.

‘Listen, we're going to get you out of here,’ Amy told Isabella, ‘but we need you to tell us what's going on. What is this place? What are they doing?’

Isabella looked between the two of them, obviously unsure and terrified, but after a couple of moments she began to speak. ‘They, er, they come at night. They gather around my bed, and they take me to a room with this green light and a chair with straps, as if for a surgeon.’

‘What do they do then?’ asked Rose, her stomach churning in anticipation of what Isabella’s answer may be. ‘In that room?’

But Isabella just shook her head. ‘I wake up here. And the sunlight burns my skin like candle wax.’

Rose wasn’t sure if she was disappointed or relieved that Isabella couldn’t remember what happened to her. But she was sure of one thing. She and Amy had better get to that trap door before the vampires came for them too.

\----

Shortly after curfew, Rose and Amy set to work. They crept through the hallways, watching each shadow and pausing at each noise. Eventually they made it to the cellar where the trap door was. Rose stood guard as Amy unlocked the door for the Doctor and Rory. Everything was going well and Amy was more than a little chuffed with her ability to follow through on the plan that she had suggested.

But that feeling only lasted until she stepped out of the cellar and into the hall where Rose was waiting. Rose was still there but so was Carlo… and he had Rose’s arm twisted behind her back and a hand over her mouth, silencing her screams. Rose was struggling but the man was stronger than he looked and he had obviously had the element of surprise.

Amy had about two seconds to process all this before two arms grabbed her from behind. It was Francesco. She tried struggling against him but he held tight.

Signora Calvierri walked into the room, standing between the two captured women. She looked between them, an amused smile on her face.

‘Psychic paper. Did you really think that would work on me?’


	19. The Vampires of Venice Part Two

Amy struggled against her captors as they strapped her to a chair in an eerily lit room. Out of the corner of her eye she could see that Rose was being given much the same treatment. But it seemed that these vampires (and Carlo, whose humanity had yet to be determined) were stronger than they looked and they soon had Amy and Rose restrained.

‘Where are you from?’ asked Signora Calvierri. ‘Did you fall through the Chasm?’

Chasm? What chasm?

Well, whatever method Signora Calvierri thought they came here by, Amy wasn't giving them any information about the Doctor or the TARDIS. The fact that they knew about psychic paper was worrying enough.

‘Mother this is pointless,’ said Francesco, impatiently. ‘Let's just start the process and-’

‘Hold your tongue, Francesco,’ interrupted his mother and Amy wasn’t sure if she was relieved or disappointed that she didn’t get to hear what this “process” entailed. ‘I need to know what these girls are doing in a world of savages with psychic paper.’ She turned back to Amy and Rose. ‘Who are you with? You see, I scarcely believe your idiot brother sent you. What are you doing in my school?’

Franceso attatched a hook to the ceiling above Amy’s chair and a vampire girl hooked a drip bag onto it. Amy eyed it nervously. Maybe she didn’t want to know what this process was about after all.

‘Okay, I'll tell you,’ she said. ‘I'm from Ofsted.’

Signora Calvierii just laughed and told the other vampires to ready her for the process. The process which apparently involved bags of blood that were now being attached to Amy’s chair.

‘What are you doing?’ asked Rose. Amy was impressed by the steely resolve in her voice. Though she did detect a slight quiver at the end, giving Rose’s fear away. Hopefully the vampires didn’t notice it too.

Signora Calvierri ignored her, instead focussing on Amy who was now struggling against her restraints. She seemed very amused. ‘Oh, make sport of me, will you? Tease me as if I were your dog? Well, this dog has a bite, girl.’ She opened her mouth to reveal her pointy teeth and Amy couldn’t help but scream as those teeth pierced the skin of her neck.

After a few seconds, the pain lessoned a tinsy bit and she was able to focus on the other voices in the room. It seemed that Francesco was a bit thirsty too and had decided to take a drink from Rose.

‘Oh, Mother, this one’s blood is different. I cannot describe it. It is human and yet not.’

Signora Calvierri let go of Amy and walked over to Rose. Amy followed her with her eyes and watched as she shifted Rose’s head so she could taste for herself. Rose whimpered a curse as Signora Calveirri bit her neck. After a few seconds, she let go and turned to her son. ‘Oh, you are right Francesco. She is different.’ She leant down to take another drink but Francesco stopped her. ‘Mother, may we share? I’m so thirsty.’

Signora Calveirri smiled. ‘Of course, darling.’ And they both lowered their heads to either side of Rose’s neck and began to drink.

‘Rose!’ shouted Amy, but she got no response. Rose’s struggling was getting weaker now and her eyes were squeezed shut in pain. After a minute, she stopped moving altogether and her face relaxed as she no doubt fell into unconsciousness.

‘Rose!’ shouted Amy once more and this seemed to alert Signora Calvierri to their subject’s state.

‘Francesco stop,’ she ordered. ‘We are not prepared for the process with this one.’ In unison, both of their heads turned to Amy. Right. She was the one in the creepy chair with blood bags, guess that meant that she was meant to go through this “process” first.

Signora Calvierri stepped away from Rose and walked over to Amy. Amy could just tell by the smile on her face that she was going to start gloating.

‘This is how it works,’ she started. Yep, there it was. Gloating. ‘First, we drink you until you're dry. Then we fill you with our blood. It rages through you like a fire, changing you, until one morning you awake and your humanity is a dream now faded.’

‘Or you die,’ said Francesco, offhandedly. ‘That can happen.’

‘And if I survive?’ asked Amy, still a little woozy from losing the blood that had been taken from her already.

‘Then there are ten thousand husbands waiting for you in the water.’

Amy didn’t quite have enough focus at the moment to fully take in that statement but she was sure as hell sure she didn’t want to know about any of these ten thousand husbands. She was only worried about the one. ‘Yeah, sorry, I'm kind of engaged,’ she told Signora Calvierri and, drawing up as much strength as she could muster, she kicked the woman in the stomach. Signora Calvierri grunted a little as she stumbled backwards but Amy’s kick seemed to have done more than had been originally planned. The regal human form of Signora Calverii flickered and now Amy could see what she really looked like. And it wasn’t a vampire. It was like a big fish thing with legs. The big pointy teeth were the same as what Amy had previously seen though.

Signora Calvierri adjusted a device that was attached to her hip and her form flickered back to that of a human. Amy was worried that she would dispense of this process she had originally intended for her and just kill her instead but then a shout from nearby in the school distracted her. It seemed that the Doctor had gotten through the trap door. Amy sighed in relief. Maybe he had brought some weapons with him but deep down she knew not to get her hopes up too much. Weapons weren’t the Doctor’s style.

With one last angry look at Amy, Signora Calvierri, Francesco and Carlo left to investigate the noise, leaving Amy and Rose alone in the room.

‘Rose?’ shouted Amy but there was no response. She was still unconscious.

Suddenly someone appeared at the other side of Amy chair and she prepared herself to give them another kick but she relaxed when she saw that it was Isabella. ‘Thank you,’ she said as the last of her restraints were undone. She got up and started to head for Rose’s chair but Isabella grabbed her arm to stop her.

‘I’m sorry but we don’t have time,’ glancing at Rose with a look of guilt in her eyes. ‘We have to leave now. They could be back in a matter of moments. There are too many of them and they are everywhere.’

Amy argued and struggled against Isabella’s grip, of course she did, but she couldn’t help but admit that Isabella was right. If they took Rose, they’d all be caught and killed.

‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered to the unconscious Rose as she let Isabella drag her out of the room. ‘We’ll come back, I swear.’

Isabella led her through the corridors and Amy followed, trusting her to know where she was going. And, whether by accident or intention, a minute later they ran into the Doctor and Rory. They were pretty much surrounded by vampires (or rather, big fish things, Amy corrected herself) but the Doctor did seem to have one method of defence against them. A long UV light.

After a quick assessment of the situation, Isabella beckoned them all to follow her through the corridor that she and Amy had just come out of.

‘They're not vampires,’ said Amy as Isabella led them through a familiar passageway. It led to the trapdoor that Amy had unlocked earlier.

But the not-vampires were right behind them.

‘What?’ asked the Doctor from the back of the group. He was brandishing his UV light, keeping their pursuers at bay. 

‘I saw them. I saw her. They're not vampires, they're aliens.’ 

‘Classic,’ said the Doctor with a smile as he they all lowered themselves through the trapdoor. He sonicked it shut once they were all though.

‘That's good news?’ asked Rory, incredulously. ‘What is wrong with you people?’

The Doctor opened his mouth to answer but now that they had gained a bit of distance for the not-vampires, he had noticed who was missing from the group. ‘Where’s Rose?’

Amy took the UV light out of his hand and gave it to Rory who was now at the back of the group. He looked at it in confusion for a moment before he realised that this meant it was his turn to protect them. Amy pulled on the Doctor’s arm. ‘She’ll be fine,’ she said, letting him know that Rose was still alive and encouraging him to move with the one sentence.

‘Where is she?’ he demanded, refusing to budge. Something in his eyes had changed and for the first time, Amy realised why the Atraxi had run away from him that day in Leadworth.

The Doctor was dangerous.

Amy pushed the though to the back of her mind. She knew that the Doctor was a good man and was only a danger to the bad guys… and himself. As much as she wanted to go back for Rose, it was suicide, even for the Doctor, and she couldn’t let him try. ‘They drank a load of her blood,’ she explained, quickly. ‘She was unconscious and we didn’t have time to free her. But she is still alive and they want her that way. But _we_ won’t be if we stay here.’

To prove her point, a loud bang came from the trap door above them.

‘I’ll explain later, I promise, but we have to move,’ said Amy.

‘No,’ said,’ the Doctor, turning around but Rory pushed back.

‘They’re coming,’ he said and he and Amy worked together to drag the Doctor down the passage way. The girls were through the trapdoor now and Amy had to admire the way Rory was able to hold them off with the light as well as keeping the Doctor from charging past him.

Finally they reached the door that Isabella was holding open for them. Amy almost cried with relief at the sight of the literal light at the end of the tunnel. It was morning now and those things may not be vampires but they still didn’t like the sun. They pushed the Doctor out the door but they lost their grip on him on the way down the stairs. Amy looked up just in time to see him shove Isabella behind him into the sun before trying to get through the many girls in the doorway.

But the girls were too quick for him. Obviously deciding that he was not worth the pain, they closed the door on him. As soon as the Doctor touched the door to open it back up, he seized up and collapsed. It must have been electrified or something.

Isabella screamed in pain and Amy suddenly realised what she had said about the sun burning. She quickly ran to Isabella and ushered her into the shade. Guido was quick to join them.

Now sure that Isabella was not in pain, Amy turned to go help Rory with the Doctor. ‘Is he dead?’ she asked, fearful of what answer she would get.

‘No, he's breathing,’ said Rory, lifting the Doctor up the best he could. Amy let out a sigh of relief and went to the Doctor’s other side. Together, she and Rory dragged him towards Guido’s boat.

\----

They were still on the water when the Doctor woke up. It was a little cramped on the small boat and Amy had to shoot a hand out to steady herself when it rocked from the jolt of the Doctor’s quick recovery and she heard Isabella hiss as the coat they had given her to cover her skin slipped.

‘Rose!’ was the first word out of the Doctor’s mouth and his head swivelled as he took in his surroundings.

Amy put her hands on his shoulders, hoping to calm him down. ‘We’ll get her back,’ she told him.

The Doctor finally stilled as he remembered everything that had happened. Amy could tell he was remembering by the glare he was giving her. ‘Yes, we will,’ he agreed and he turned to Guido who was still punting the gondola. ‘Take me back.’ All four of the other people in the boat argued but the Doctor ignored them. ‘Take me back,’ he repeated and the cold edge in his voice was enough for everyone to fall quiet.

After a couple of tense moments, Guido spoke up. ‘Doctor, if you want to go back, I understand, but I won’t risk my Isabella.’ He gave a brief look towards his daughter, still rugged up in jackets to protect her from the sun, and Amy swore that the Doctor’s eyes softened a little bit. ‘Those creatures are evil and you only just escaped last time.’

At this, the Doctor finally stopped glaring and his shoulders slumped. ‘You’re right,’ he admitted. ‘Of course you are. Sneaking about with a torch didn’t work so we will have to try a different approach.’

‘Weapons,’ said Guido but the Doctor waved him off.

‘No of course not. What we need is the direct approach.’ He turned to Amy. ‘You said these things were aliens; describe them to me. Don’t leave out a single detail.’ His words were familiar but Amy couldn’t help but feel a little hurt at the tone of his voice. It was all professionalism with barely masked anger.

Amy pushed the hurt aside. Of course he was angry with her, she had left Rose in the hands of those things. She owed it to him, and to Rose, to do what she could to get her back. So, with that in mind, she told the Doctor everything she could remember about what Signora Calvierri had changed into when Amy had kicked that contraption on her hip. It wasn’t exactly the best description but it seemed to be enough for the Doctor.

‘Saturyn.’

‘Sat-what?’ asked Rory.

‘Saturyn,’ repeated the Doctor. ‘They’re not vampires, they’re Saturyn, and they’re a long way from home. But why are they converting humans? They’re not usually a hostile race, at least not on this scale. There’s something else happening here.' He seemed to be talking to himself by this point so the others just let him talk. Suddenly his head shot up and Amy knew that he had come to a decision of what to do. ‘Okay, I need more information,’ he said, ‘ so this is what we’re going to do. You lot are going to go back to Guido’s house and stay there, while I go have a chat with Signora Calvierri.’

‘What?’ asked Amy, her half shout drowning out Rory’s quieter statement of ‘You can’t be serious?’

‘The direct approach,’ said the Doctor, ‘should have tried it in the beginning. I need information and Signora Calvierri has it.’

‘But she’ll kill you,’ said Isabella.

‘That’s a risk I’ll just have to take. Besides, she’s too curious about us to kill me straight away. She’ll want information from me too.'

Amy could tell that there was no use arguing and she gave a short nod to Guido, signalling that he should do as the Doctor says. Guido steered the gondola to the edge of the canal and the Doctor clambered out. He gave a brief warning not to follow him and to stay at Guido’s and then he was off in the direction of the school. Amy just hoped he could keep his cool long enough for him to make it back again.

\----

The Doctor easily evaded the guards and strolled into the school’s main hall, which looked more like a throne room than anything else. The chair that was sitting at the head of the room certainly looked pretty regal. It was the perfect place to sit while he waited for Signora Rosanna Calvierri to show up. Every inch of him was itching to go and find Rose and take her back to the TARDIS but he managed to stay seated. Guido was right; he couldn’t just go rushing in. The Saturyn may not have a history of hostility, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t be deadly. And there were far too many for him to fight off singlehandedly.

Thankfully, Rosanna didn’t make him wait long, and, even more thankfully, she entered the throne room alone.

She paused when she saw him, looking at him with a mixture of shock and intrigue. She hadn’t called the guards or made any move to attack so the Doctor took that as a sign that he was safe to talk.

‘Long way from Saturnyne, aren't you, Sister of the Water?’

Rosanna smiled. ‘No, let me guess. The owner of the psychic paper.’ The Doctor nodded. ‘Then I take it you're a refugee, like me?’

‘I'll make you a deal,’ said the Doctor, keeping a close eye on the woman in front of him. ‘An answer for an answer. I’ll go first. Where's Rose?’

‘She’s safe here… for now,’ answered Rosanna. ‘I must say she is quite a delicious mystery.’ The Doctor flinched at her wording. ‘What is she?’

‘Human.’

‘She can’t be.’

Rosanna’s tone made it obvious that she would not take any half-truths. The Doctor sighed. ‘Well she is and she isn’t. Not even I know how much she has changed so I doubt you lot have much chance of figuring it out.’

‘Then she will be fed to my sons,’ said Rosanna.

‘Then again, I don’t know everything. Maybe you will find something I missed.’

Rosanna chuckled at his sudden backtrack but did not reveal any clues as to Rose’s fate.

The Doctor took a moment to calm himself and then asked his next question. ‘The girls, why do you need them?’

‘Our race is dying,’ said Rosanna and the Doctor felt a stab of pity through the anger and fear that he was barely keeping contained. ‘My turn. Where are you from?’

‘Gallifrey.’

Rosanna’s eyes widened at that. ‘You should be in a museum. Or in a mausoleum.’

The Doctor decided to ignore that statement. ‘Why are you here?’ he asked.

‘We ran from the Silence. Why are you here?’

‘Wedding present,’ the Doctor answered quickly, he was more interest in Rosanna’s last answer. ‘The Silence?’’ he asked.

Rosanna’s face turned mournful as she began to pace. The Doctor didn’t miss the fact that she was slowly moving closer to him. ‘There were cracks. Some were tiny. Some were as big as the sky. Through some we saw worlds and people, and through others we saw Silence and the end of all things. We fled to an ocean like ours, and the crack snapped shut behind us. Saturnyne was lost.’

‘So Earth is to become Saturnyne Mark Two?’

‘And you can help me. We can build a new society here, as others have. What do you say?’

The Doctor got up and took the few steps needed to reach her. He studied her face. She actually seemed sincere in her wish for his help. 

Rosanna seemed to grow impatient. ‘I need an answer, Doctor. A partnership. Any which way you choose.’ The last sentence was laced with innuendo and the Doctor resisted the urge to shudder.

‘I don't think that's such a good idea, do you?’ he told her. ‘I'm a Time Lord. You're a big fish. Think of the children.’ He almost added mention of his girlfriend who was still being held captive somewhere in the building but he decided against it. He didn’t want the Saturyns to know just how much Rose meant to him lest they use her to threaten him.

Unsurprisingly, Rosanna was less than happy with his answer. Her face fell into a frown and she called for a guard.

‘You're right, we're nothing alike,’ she told the Doctor. ‘I will bend the heavens to save my race, while you philosophise.’

A man entered and reached out to the Doctor, obviously intending to manhandle him out of the building, but the Doctor shrugged him off. ‘This ends today,’ he told Rosanna. ‘I can take what is left of your race away to another planet so you can try and start again but I will not let you take any more lives here. I will tear down the House of Calvierri, stone by stone if I have to.’

Rosanna gave no indication of altering whatever plans she had for the girls or the Earth so the Doctor gave her one last glare of warning and showed himself out of the school, silently vowing that next time he walked out through these gates, Rose would be by his side.


	20. The Vampires of Venice Part Three

The atmosphere in Guido’s small dining room was tense and the Doctor knew full well that it was because of him. Once he had gotten back to the house he had used the sonic to heal the puncture wounds on Amy’s neck and had given her something to help with the blood loss (he may be angry with her but he wasn’t heartless) and since then he had done nothing but pace up and down the room, glaring at anything that happened to be in his field of vision.

‘I say we take the fight to them,’ said Guido, finally breaking the awkward silence, but the Doctor had just figured out what Rosanna’s plans for Venice were.

‘Her planet dies, so they flee through a crack in space and time and end up here,’ he said, ignoring Guido’s annoyed look at being disregarded. ‘Then she closes off the city and, one by one, starts changing the people into creatures like her to start a new gene pool. Got it. But then what? They come from the sea. They can't survive forever on land, so what's she going to do? Unless she's going to do something to the environment to make the city habitable. She said, I shall bend the heavens to save my race. Bend the heavens. Bend the heavens. She's going to sink Venice.’

‘She's going to sink Venice?’ asked Guido, now more confused and worried than annoyed.

The Doctor nodded, still pacing. ‘And repopulate it with the girls she's transformed.’

‘You can't repopulate somewhere with just women,’ said Rory. ‘You need blokes.’ He had spoken a bit slow, trying to make sense of the situation but at least he had said something useful. Up until now the Doctor had been worried he wouldn’t be able to handle this kind of life but maybe there was hope for the young nurse yet.

‘She's got blokes,’ said Amy and the Doctor snapped his head around to face her.

‘Where?’

‘In the canal. She said to me there are ten thousand husbands waiting in the water.’

The Doctor resumed his pacing. ‘Yes, that’s right, she mentioned them to me too. She said she had sons. So, only the male offspring survived the journey here. She's got ten thousand children swimming around the canals, waiting for Mum to make them some compatible girlfriends.’ He paused. ‘Ugh. I mean I've been around a bit, but really that's… ugh.’

A noise from above them brought their attention away from the topic at hand and everybody looked towards the ceiling. ‘Guido… please tell me there are people up there,’ said the Doctor. He looked back down from the ceiling just in time to see Guido and Isabella shaking their heads. ‘Thought not.’

‘Is it the vampires?’ asked Rory and the Doctor bit back the urge to correct him. Now was not the time for semantics, however much he loved them.

Suddenly the sound of smashing glass caused them all to jump and look towards the window that one of the vampire girls had just broken. It looked like every one of Calvierri’s “students” had converged on the house, trying to trap them in.

‘Aren't we on the second floor?’ said Rory and this time there was no need to correct him. They _were_ on the second floor. It seemed that these girls could fly. Just great! As if the Doctor didn’t have enough problems.

Wasting no more time, the Doctor brandished his UV light and waved it at the girls at the window. Isabella flinched as she momentarily got caught in the light but she quickly moved out of the way into her father’s arms. The Doctor pointed his screwdriver at the girls at the window and their appearance changed. They were all Saturyns. He was too late to save them.

‘What's happened to them?’ asked Guido, clutching his daughter tightly.

‘There's nothing left of them,’ said the Doctor with a mix of urgency and sadness. ‘They've been fully converted. It’s time we got out of here.’

Nobody needed telling twice. They all headed to the stairs, Amy and Rory in the lead with the Doctor bringing up the rear, ready to fight off any "vampires" with the UV light.

They were at the bottom of the stairs when someone wrenched the light out of the Doctor’s hand. He was shocked to see that it was Isabella. ‘What are you doing?’ he asked her just as Guido shouted at his daughter to come back. Isabella was already halfway back up the stairs.

She paused at the sound of her father’s voice. ‘I will stop them,' she said with a bravery that the Doctor couldn't help but admire. 'Now go!’

‘I’ll do it,’ said Guido and the Doctor finally understood the full impact of what Isabella was suggesting. The gunpowder in Guido’s dining room was more than enough to blow apart the whole building… and anything in it.

‘I can’t even walk in the sunlight, father!’ Isobella cried. The banging from upstairs continued. The girls were going to be inside any second. ‘Now go, please!’

She turned and ran up the stairs. Guido made to follow her, crying out her name but the Doctor grabbed him. ‘We’ve got to go. Come on. Do as your daughter says.’

Guido put up a fight but the Doctor was stronger than he looked. He managed to get Guido out of the house just in time to miss the worst of the explosion. They were still close enough for it to send them flying though.

The Doctor groaned in pain as Amy helped him to stand. Rory was helping the sobbing Guido.

The Doctor walked up to him and put a hand on the grieving man’s shoulder. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said and he felt like he had never meant it more. He knew he could have tried harder to save Isobella but if he had, he and Guido would probably be dead now. And the Saturyns wouldn’t be. With a nasty pang, he realised that this was probably how Amy felt. Maybe he shouldn’t be so hard on her for leaving Rose.

Guido wiped his eyes and looked back at what used to be his house. ‘She was always such a brave girl. And she always knew what she wanted. She gave her life to save us and Venice and I will not let her gift be wasted.’ He turned to the Doctor, his face a mask of purposeful determination. ‘I shall grieve later. First I shall honour her by helping to destroy what is left of these devils. What can I do?’

A rumbling of thunder cut off the Doctor’s reply and he looked up at the sky. Where there had been sunny blue skies a minute ago, there were now dark ominous clouds in its place. And they definitely weren’t natural.

‘Rosanna's initiating the final phase.’

‘We need to stop her,’ said Amy and she made to head off in the direction of the school but the Doctor stopped her.

‘No, no, no. Get back to the TARDIS,’ he said. He had already lost and endangered too many people today. He wasn’t going to let Amy add herself to that list. This was supposed to be a nice trip for her and Rory.

‘You can't stop her on your own,’ argued Amy, glaring at him.

‘I’m not on my own, I’ve got Guido. Now you two, go!’ Amy tried to argue again but he cut her off. ‘We don’t discuss this. I tell you to do something, Amy, and you do it!’ He knew he was being an arse but if that’s what it took to keep her safe then so be it.

Amy glared at him for a moment longer before storming off in the direction of the TARDIS. Rory gave the Doctor a quick and heartfelt 'thank you' and then followed.

The Doctor watched them go before turning back to Guido. ‘Right, Guido, while I stop Rosanna from sinking Venice, I have an even more important job for you to do.’

\----

Rose struggled against her restraints. She had been struggling against her restraints for the last few hours and it hadn’t done her any good but she was never one for giving up that easily. She was far too stubborn for that. The sound of footsteps caught her attention and she struggled harder, she didn’t want another bite from Mrs Fish Dracula or her Mummy’s Boy son thank you very much.

The footsteps got closer and Rose was no closer to getting free. She kept an eye on the door, wondering which one of the "vampires" wanted their next meal or if they had finally decided to try converting her, but it was not a vampire who walked in.

Rose let out a sigh of relief as Guido’s eyes landed on her and he rushed to help free her from the chair. ‘You have no idea how happy I am to see you,’ she whispered. 'Did the others get out okay?’

Guido was silent for a moment before he answered. ‘Yes, they got out of the school. The Doctor is upstairs. Signora Calvierri is trying to sink Venice.’

He was obviously holding something back; there was great pain in his eyes. ‘Guido, what happened to the others?'

Guido finished getting her left arm free and moved over to the right. ‘The girls – the Saturyns,’ he said the word slowly, as if not sure if he was saying it right or even if he believed it was a real word. Rose assumed it must be the proper name for the vampires, ‘they came to the house. Isabella, she… she stopped them. She gave her life to do it.’ He freed Rose’s other arm and then wiped the solitary tear that was falling down his face. ‘The Doctor sent Amy and Rory away.’

Now that Rose’s arms were free, she used them to give Guido a tight hug. ‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘Isabella seemed like a nice girl.’

‘She was,’ Guido nodded before he locked away the grief once more. ‘But I shall mourn her later. We need to get out of here before Signora Calveirri comes looking.’

\----

There were no guards at the school gates this time, the ferocious looking sky had scared them away and they were probably joining in with all the screaming that was gong on around the city. So the Doctor had no problem getting where he wanted to go. He strode purposefully towards the throne that he had been sitting on not hours beforehand. He mentally smacked himself for not realising its significance back then.

Once he had a proper look at it, it didn’t take him long to figure out how to reveal the weather-altering technology inside.

‘You're too late,’ said a voice from behind him and he spun around to face Rosanna. ‘ _Such_ determination, just to save one city. Hard to believe it's the same man that let an entire race turn to cinders and ash. Now you can watch as my people take their new kingdom.’

He took a moment to compose himself, choosing to ignore Rosanna’s comment about the Time War. ‘The girls have gone, Rosanna,’ he told her. Rosanna’s victory smile fell instantly.

‘You're lying,’ she said but her eyes betrayed her. She knew the truth.

‘Shouldn't I be dead, hmm?’ the Doctor reasoned. Rosanna turned and started walking away ‘Rosanna, please, help me,' he called out to her. 'There are two hundred thousand people in this city.’

The Doctor’s plea fell on deaf ears. ‘So save them,’ said Rosanna icily. She paused by the door and turned back to him. ‘And you’re wrong. Not all the girls are gone. I still have one left.’

She marched out of the room and the Doctor resisted the urge to follow. He just had to trust that Guido would have gotten Rose out by the time Rosanna got there. Right now, Venice needed him. He had to reverse Rosanna’s weather machine.

\----

Guido and Rose had not long left the cellar when they heard Rosanna’s cry of anguish. She must have realised that Rose had escaped.

From what Rose understood, Rosanna was the last female of her species and she had been converting the girls to breed with her sons. Now that the girls were gone, she had lost her chance of saving her species.

Despite everything that Rosanna had done, Rose felt sorry for her.

Guido and Rose made it to the throne room without encountering anyone else and Rose let out a sigh of relief. Partly because she felt a lot safer now that she was out of the maze of corridors of the school, but mainly because she could see that Amy and Rory were still alive… and they seemed to be attacking a chair.

‘Has the chair done something wrong?’ asked Rose, trying for a bit of humour. As soon as the words had left her mouth, Amy’s head whipped up to face her and she all but bolted from the chair. Two seconds later she was hugging Rose tightly and apologising profusely.

Rose waved off her apologies. She understood why they had left and she was just glad that they had gotten out. She turned her attention back to the chair which she now could see had wires and very alien looking technology inside. ‘So what does that do?’ she asked, waving her hand, indicating the throne. ‘And why are we destroying it.’

‘Rosanna is using it to control the weather,’ said Rory, tugging at a wire. It broke free from the chair and he gave a little smile before he chucked it on the floor. ‘She’s trying to sink Venice.’

‘The Doctors gone to destroy the generator,’ added Amy with a knowing look. She had obviously guessed what Rose’s next question was going to be.

Having pulled another few things off the chair, Rory stepped back from it. ‘Do you think that’s enough?’

Rose looked at the throne. It was well and truly destroyed now. Sparking wires hung off it and there were various pieces of metal, wiring and fabric littering the floor around it. ‘Yeah, I think you guys killed it.'

Amy smiled. ‘Come on, let’s see how the Doctor’s doing,’ she said and she grabbed Rory’s hand and dragged him out of the throne room. Rose couldn’t help but notice that the pair seemed a lot happier than they had been yesterday, even if Rory was still a bit apprehensive about the whole “vampire” situation.

Guido and Rose followed them out of the throne room and, to Rose’s surprise, out of the school. ‘There he is,’ shouted Rory pointing upwards. Rose followed his gaze and could just make out the sight of the Doctor on belltower through the rain. He seemed to be trying to reach the very top. Rose crossed her fingers, praying he didn’t slip.

A few minutes that felt like they were hours later, the Doctor had worked his magic and the skies above Venice cleared.

The people around them started to cheer and applaud. Amy and Rory hugged in celebration and Rose smiled at the pair. Despite what Amy had done, there was still so much love and comfort in their embrace. Rose turned and ran back inside the school. She could really use a hug like that right about now... and there was only one man who could give it to her.

\----

The Doctor ran down the steps that led from the belltower. He had stopped Rosanna’s weather machine and had therefore saved Venice but he wasn’t ready to celebrate yet – not until he had Rose safely back in his arms.

He entered the throne room and smiled at the mess that Amy and Rory had made of the chair. They had really gotten into it. He heard someone run into the room behind him and when he turned to see who it was his smile widened.

‘Rose,’ he sighed in relief and he held his arms out just in time for her to run into them. After a good 30 seconds of just holding her, he pulled back, but only enough so he had room to crash his lips to hers in a hard kiss. It was so good to have her back. For a while there, though he wouldn’t admit it, he had really been scared that Rosanna had killed her.

‘Oh, so now you kiss her,’ said Amy in mock complaint as she, Rory and Guido entered the throne room. The Doctor pulled out of the kiss but didn’t release his hold on Rose. He smiled at the blush that was creeping over her cheeks.

Reluctantly, he let Rose move out of the hug so she could face their friends.

‘So is that it?’ asked Rory ‘Is Venice safe now?’

The Doctor nodded. ‘Yes, it’s safe. Well, safe from vampire fish at any rate. I imagine there’s a bit of a clean up to do though.’

‘We will rebuild,’ said Guido with confidence. ‘We’re Venetian.’

The Doctor gave a small laugh at that and reached out to shake Guido’s hand. ‘That you are. And with you helping them Guido, I’m sure that Venice will be back on its feet in no time.’

‘Thank you, Doctor. Hopefully I will be able to make my daughter proud.’

‘I think you already have,’ said Rose and she leaned up to give Guido a peck on the cheek. ‘Thanks for everything.’

Guido gave a small nod, accepting her thanks and then turned to say goodbye to Amy and Rory. The Doctor almost considered inviting him along to join them but thought better of it. He knew that there was no way that Guido would leave Venice.

With one last nod to them all, Guido left the school and headed out to help repair the damage that Rosanna had done to his city.

Rosanna!

Without a word, the Doctor fled the room. He reached his hand out behind him when he realised that Rose was right behind him and she took it as they ran.

\----

‘Rosanna!’ shouted the Doctor as they reached the canal. Rosanna was standing by the water, she had stripped down to her white underdress that was quite similar to the nightgown that Rose still wore.

‘One city to save an entire species,’ she said, not even turning to look at them. She sounded so defeated. ‘Was that so much to ask?’

‘I told you, you can't go back and change time,’ said the Doctor, trying to make her see reason. ‘You mourn, but you live. I know, Rosanna. I did it.’

‘Let us help,’ added Rose and the Doctor squeezed her hand in gratitude. Yet again her compassion astounded him. She was always so willing to help even those who had hurt her.

Rosanna ignored both of them. ‘Tell me, Doctor. Can your conscience carry the weight of another dead race?’ She finally turned to face them and the Doctor knew there was no talking her out of this. ‘Remember us. Dream of us.’

The Doctor let go of Rose’s hand and ran towards Rosanna but it was too late. She had already stepped into the water, her perception filter still on. The Doctor watched in horror as the water bubbled from the movement of the last of the Saturyns consuming their mother.

A hand rested on his shoulder and the Doctor looked up to see Rose’s concerned face. ‘You didn’t do this,’ she said. ‘She chose for this to happen, not you.’

His Rose – she always knew exactly what to say. He got back to his feet and gave her a grateful hug. ‘Come on,’ he said once he had pulled away. ‘I think its time we got back to the TARDIS.’

\----

‘Now then, what about you two, eh?’ the Doctor asked Amy and Rory as they approached the TARDIS. Rose couldn’t have been happier to se it. For one thing, she really needed a shower. ‘Next stop Leadworth Registry Office,’ continued the Doctor. ‘Maybe I can give you away.’

Rose smiled at the thought. She doubted the Doctor would make it halfway down the aisle without tripping over his own shoes or embarrassing Amy in some way. But neither Amy nor Rory seemed to find the idea amusing. In fact, Amy had started to look uneasy the moment the Doctor had mention the registry office. And Rory had noticed.

‘It's fine,’ he said in a sad sigh. ‘Drop me back where you found me. I'll just say you've-’

‘Stay,’ said Amy, interrupting him. Her uneasiness was gone, replaced by relieved gratitude. ‘With us. Please. Just for a bit. I want you to stay.’

Rory looked unsure but Rose could tell that he was thrilled at hearing Amy’s words. He looked to Rose and the Doctor, as if seeking permission. They were both quick to give it.

‘Fine with me.’

‘And me.’

Rory finally let himself smile.

‘Yes,’ he said, nodding. ‘I would like that.’

Amy smiled and gave him a quick kiss. ‘Nice one,’ she said before opening the TARDIS door. ‘I will pop the kettle on.’

Smiling, the rest of them followed her into the TARDIS. And, as the blue box faded away, Venice fell silent.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this episode wasn't a let down what with the long wait and all. I will really try to get the next episode done quicker than I did this one.


End file.
